Week 14 Reading Responses

7 Things You Need to Stop Doing to Be More Productive

So I thought this was an interesting article. A lot of the suggestions were based on things I already pretty much knew (or assumed) but it was definitely interesting to see the actual facts and data behind them. A lot of these made me think about my previous job. My colleagues and I (including my boss) often worked nights and weekends, often working 60-80 hour weeks. I got woken up a lot during the night by text or WeChat messages from my boss or a colleague who was working late and had a question. So, The Business Roundtable’s report stating that “when a work schedule of 60 hours or more per week is continued longer than about 2 months, the cumulative effect of decreased productivity will cause a delay in the completion date beyond that which could have been realized with the same crew size on a 40-hour week.” I definitely noticed a decrease in my own productivity and was often frustrated at the inefficacy and lack of productivity of some of my colleagues. Maybe this was a major factor in that. 

Faking Cultural Literacy 

I really don’t agree with the point this author is making. I actually didn’t realize that this was something enough people did that it was a thing? Is this really a thing? My older brother does something kind of like this: whenever we are discussing a topic (any topic) he always has to act like he is an expert on it, even when he clearly is not and has no idea what he’s talking about. It drives me absolutely nuts. But he is the only person I know who does this. No one else I know, including myself, feels the need to act like they know about everything that is going on. I particularly disagree with the author’s insinuation that not being up to date on everything pop-culture related is the equivalent of being dead. 

I think this ties into the topics covered in “Taming the Information Tide” and “From ‘information’ to ‘knowing’” very well.  Both of these cover information overload – one using it as a basis for further research and the other arguing it may not be as widespread as other literature claims. Perhaps one reason some people feel as if they are dealing with information overload is that they are trying to know everything about everything, which is impossible. Everyone has their interests and areas of expertise -  no one knows it all. That’s why we work together. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Trying to know it all simply makes you a “jack of all trades – master of none.”

Taming the Information Tide

I found this really interesting, especially in light of the other readings. One thing that particularly stood out to me was their note that people have been condemning media for causing information overload since over a century ago when they complained about “sensationalist yellow press articles.” This made me think of Chris’ presentation on how people need to just “get over it” and accept how communication practices have changed. It seems like this author might make a similar point about the concept of information overload. 

Another thing that stood out was one participant’s comment that was quoted in the paper regarding new forms of news consumption. It about how people care just as much or little as before, they’re just not confronted with the information anymore, they can choose. My first thought was back to the discussion we had in class about how news media used to force people to be aware of important events whether they were interested in them or not. But then I thought, even then, would people who didn’t care simply change the channel or turn it off if they didn’t care about the content?

From Information to Knowing

The first thing that stuck out to me about this paper, especially after reading the previous one, was how the authors go into their research using the lens of information overload. They accept the concept as valid while in “Taming the Information Tide” the author is contesting the validity of the concept. 

I also found it interesting that they separate news as a distinct type of knowledge that is transient and perishable. They claim it “becomes a fact stored or deleted from the preexisting perceptual schema of the individual’s environment.” While I suppose this does make sense, how is news then different from knowledge about pop culture or even academic knowledge? Many disciplines change rapidly, and so knowledge about those topics could possibly be considered transient in the same way news is, and these types of knowledge, I think you could argue, also affect the perceptual schema of the individual’s environment.

Final Thoughts on Information Overload

I would tend to agree with the author of “Taming the Information Tide” that information overload is not something new and specific to the information age. I distinctly remember back in high school when the internet and social media were not nearly as widespread, watching Rory Gilmore on Gilmore Girls have a panic attack after visiting Harvard and discovering it had 13 libraries. She despaired that she would never be able to read all those books and everyone would think she was stupid. I think that as long as there has been media there has been the potential for information overload. 

In reading the final article, I thought about the points both articles make and wondered whether people have just gotten so good at managing information overload that both points are valid? Perhaps the people in “Taming the Information Tide” enjoy the freedom new forms of consuming information brings instead of feeling burdened because they have adapted successful ways of managing the overload. I know personally I have never really felt overwhelmed by information, except in cases where I had tight deadlines – and in those cases I saw it more as an overwhelming amount of work, not information.