The High Price of Brain Overload
Managing cognitive load in a modern world
How do you switch off in the age of information overload?
In our information-rich world, cognitive congestion is increasingly becoming a problem for millions of people. Many people are struggling to keep up — they are overwhelmed by the constant flow of information.
Everything around us is set up to cause brain overload — ten tabs at a time, email alerts, phone buzz, business and social notifications, meetings, video calls and many distractions around us.
We are forced to divide our attention to the detriment of our cognitive health. No wonder we feel like shutting down by midday — the brain can’t handle it.
“Make no mistake: Email, Facebook, and Twitter checking constitute a neural addiction,” writes Daniel J. Levitin, in his book, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.
We literally can’t shut off until we sleep. Some people don’t even get quality sleep. And the minute they wake up, they pick up their phones.
The brain barely gets the downtime it needs to reset itself. Busyness has overtaken our lives…
