500 Words — Day Forty-One: Information
I’m really tired. Perhaps too tired to write a good post today. But quality is overrated in the modern information atmosphere. In a world where the noise drowns the signal, volume and content throughput matter much more than the quality and usefulness of the content. I tried looking at different social media posts and articles for inspiration, but I was unable to find anything that provided a source of inspiration. Granted I spent a lot of time scrolling through tweets that essentially say nothing looking for signal there. A gambler is more likely to find their next payday in a casino. We’re both playing the same game in search of satisfying stimulus.
There’s so much data, but so much of it is really meaningless. I wonder if people generate noise to convince themselves they still exist by hearing the echo of their own voice. But is so noisy, it’s really hard to notice that you are actually making a sound. Maybe one day, one of your like four followers on Twitter may respond back. But did they really hear what you had to say, or are they just responding back because they heard the noise, but couldn’t decipher the signal?
How much of a reality gets lost in the noise? How much of our lives do we spend digesting useless information in search of the stimulus that scratches the itch and triggers the slightest release of dopamine? In search of a sound in the great loudness that tickles the soul. But what data are we ignoring? Rather than seek information from the people and environment around us, we introspect around small screens that narrow our focus into noise producing machines and away from the signals we used to use to orient ourselves in society.
At times, it feels like we’re just surrounded by a bunch of strangers. Perhaps we have lost the ability to communicate with each other. Perhaps, we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data around us. Why ask for help from another person when you can ask your phone? Why risk sending someone the wrong signal when you can simply ignore all of the signals and focus on the noise. Let the data wrap around you like a warm blanket.
Gosh, look at me right now. I feel like I’m just injecting more noise into the information ocean. Like that was what we actually needed. You should stop reading this and do something actually useful. This is a waste of your time and probably a waste of mine. Like I said earlier, I’m really tired. I surf the internet like two hours a day and don’t get a lot out of it. I’d get more of that dopamine that I’m searching for by riding a bike or climbing a mountain. Rather than secretly root for chaos to inject itself into my world, I should inject myself into some variance from the normal routine. Escape from the phone and computer screen and get a retreat from the noise of it all. Who cares about the price of Bitcoin right now, or the fact that Ja Morant scored 52 points, or that Joe Biden mentioned Columbus, OH in the state of the union? While exciting in the moment, I’m sure none of those things will really matter six months from now.
