Information overload can lead to some untoward results. We see a man sitting in a blue airline seat. He is wearing very large horn-rim glasses and has a smartphone up to his left ear. His mouth is agape and he appears very frazzled in his purple Windsor-knotted tie and stripped purple and white dress shirt. His black hair is gelled and somewhat messy.

Information overload can lead to some untoward results.
Photo Credit: CBC

Information Overload: Is a cure available?

Here’s something that will come as no surprise to any sentient human being. Your brain has not caught up with the demands of the modern world.

“Information Overload.” Has there ever been a more apt phrase to describe how we’re living our lives these days?

We are under constant assault. Anybody who finds the time to look around (no sure thing these days) needs little or no elaboration on the matter. It’s all very well documented, likely in a million and one electronic locations.

Sometimes we spend too much time on things that maybe we should not be spending so much time on. Men of the world, please take note! We see a young couple (28 to 35 years old) perhaps in their kitchen. The man, who is in the right of the picture and is looking down intently as what appears to be a smartphone. His girlfriend (wife) is to his right. She has her right hand to her chin and is looking quite put-off by his obsessiveness.
Sometimes we spend too much time on things that maybe we should not be spending so much time on. Men of the world, please take note! © CBC

So what do we do?

Daniel Levitin has some answers and has just published a book on the subject, “The Organized Mind: Thinking straight in the Age of Information Overload.”

You may have heard of Mr. Levitin, a very busy and very eclectic fellow.

He has already published two best-sellers, “This Is Your Brain on Music” and “he World in Six Songs.”

He is a former professional musician and record producer. He is currently a professor of psychology and behaviour neuroscience at Montreal’s McGill University, where he also teaches music theory, computer science and education and is the director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise.

Wait, there’s more. Mr. Levitin is also the Dean of Arts and Humanities at The Minerva Schools at Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, California.

Oh yeah. Something else. Sometimes he works as a stand-up comic and joke writer.

Mr. Levitin is currently on a book tour of the United States and joined RCI by phone from Chicago.

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