In our culture, we are constantly bombarded with information and opinions. People demand information, so that's exactly what we get. We can get reports, reviews, and anything else by the click of a button, and if our computers stall for a few seconds, or if our phones loose reception, we get irritated and stressed. This article did a great job discussing the various ways we receive information and the true problems they pose. I have thought about some negative implications of information-on-demand before, but I had never really thought about it effecting our decision making processes in depth before. When discussing the science of decision making, the author says, "... decisions requiring creativity benefit from letting the problem incubate below the level of awareness-- something that becomes ever more difficult when information never stops arriving".
Another point in the article is that decision making science shows that some of our best decisions are made through an unconscious process. This was very interesting to me, but it also made me wonder why I have never really heard about this before. Is it because we feel the need to make many quick decisions all the time? Do we choose to ignore the benefit of the unconscious decision making process?
Justine,
ReplyDeleteI totally felt the same way when reading the article; there seemed to be a lot of information! I liked how you pointed out that people demand information, because it's true that we are so obsessed and addicted about knowing everything, so as a result we receive an abundance of information. It's funny to think though, that when we ask for information and receive a lot of it, we get stressed and irritated even though we asked for it. Our lives have been surrounded so much around the notion of knowing and gathering information, that we can't seem to stop it. Which is probably why we sometimes choose to ignore the unconscious decision because we are afraid of the consequences of not knowing all the details.
I agree that this article was a little overwhelming itself! It's kind of funny that an article warning against information overload was so complex and full of so many ideas. I think in our society we really prize getting things done quickly and being the best or most knowledgeable about things, so we just keep gathering and gathering information even if it is actually hindering us in the long run. I also think that it is a relatively new problem because of our new technology so we don't really know how to moderate ourselves or recognize it as a problem yet.
ReplyDeleteI really like your ending thought, or rather, question? I don't think we choose to ignore the benefit of unconscious decision making but we struggle to make those kinds of decisions or even struggle to realize that we do make those kinds of decisions.
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