What promoted these musings? Further thoughts on Seely Brown and Duguid’s article (1999) and the current information overload I am experiencing as I immerse myself into the world of Web 2.0.
As we move from our obsession with text to a new form of literacy, the way we approach information gathering and information processing will need to change.
As a systematic person, I previously liked to gather all possible sources of information then systematically work through them eliminating those that were not relevant to my purpose. The key is I wanted to make sure I was not missing anything. In days gone by, this approach worked well as there was only a limited group of materials that I had access to.
But with the technology and tools available now a major mind shift is needed. There is virtually an unlimited amount of information. I am plagued by worry that I am missing out on things. Every link opens up another round of endless possibilities to explore. I feel overwhelmed by the amount of interesting topics/areas I would like to pursue yet know there are simply not enough hours in the day to sate my whetted appetite.
So how do we cope with this overload of available information? How do we deal with the stress of always knowing there is so much more out there that we may not have discovered yet?
Two things. We need a fundamental mental shift and we need to harness the tools available (such as delicious) to help us manage the overflow of information. I also feel that this oppressive feeling will fade and that it is only when you are first thrown in the deep end that you sink quickly to the bottom that you feel like you are drowning, as you claw your way to the surface that first feeling of being overwhelmed will (hopefully) begin to disappear.
So perhaps I should just savour this feeling, suspecting it may never come again for me, that this is a unique moment in my development of my skills in this area, and that generations after me who grow up developing information navigation literacy skills as part of the norm may quite simply never experience this feeling.
It is incredibly oppressive, yet at the same time the lure of the unexplored possibilities is frightfully tantalizing.
