Information Overload: What it is and how to stay sane?

You wake up and pick up your phone intending to quickly check your WhatsApp. Ten minutes later, you’ve also skimmed breaking news, half-read a work thread, watched 30 Instagram reels, noticed a bank alert, and scrolled past three ads promising inner peace at a discount. Your brain feels scrambled before breakfast. That, right there, is information overload.

What is Information Overload?

Information overload happens when the volume (and variety) of information you encounter exceeds your ability to process or make sense of it. Your mind becomes that browser with 20 tabs open - lagging, overwhelmed, and craving a reboot.

Every extra message, notification, or article is a little tug: “Read me. Think about me. React to me.” At some point, you hit mental fatigue. Decisions suffer, attention spans shrink, stress rises.

Why We Fall Prey to It

Instant connectivity: Between smartphones, social media, messaging apps, emails - information is always knocking. There are fewer “off” moments.

Fear of missing out (FOMO): What if someone shares something important while you're offline? What if you miss a trend, a chance, a meme? So you stay plugged in.

Information is cheap, attention is not: It costs almost nothing to publish, share, or forward something. But your capacity to absorb is finite.

Lack of filters & boundaries: Without good filters - both technical (apps, settings) and psychological (knowing what’s relevant to you) - the noise overwhelms the signal.

How It Messes with You

Decision paralysis: With too many options or inputs, making a decision feels impossible. We delay, avoid, or revert to default (which may not be good).

Poor retention & clarity: You skim, jump, distract. Details slip. Understanding weakens.

Stress & burnout: Your brain is working overtime even when you don’t realize it. Anxiety, fatigue, irritability - both signs and consequences.

Less creativity: When your mental bandwidth is taken up trying to keep up, there’s little room left for imaginative thinking or big-picture insight.

A Glimpse into the Overwhelm: Silent Flood

To bring all this into sharper relief, there’s an interactive art piece called Silent Flood by Ajay Sharma.

 Click to experience how clutter feels

• You see shapes - circles, triangles, squares - raining down, each representing bits of info: fleeting messages, facts, memes, notifications.

• The central word “Information” stands firm, while the shapes keep piling up, spilling over the edges. No matter what you try, you can’t stop them all.

• It’s mesmerizing, but also… unsettling. Because you recognize it: you’re that scattered pile.

This piece turns metaphor into experience. It’s not just “reading about” overload - you feel it. And once you feel that overload, the case for cutting back becomes obvious.

Tips to Reduce Overload (Without Moving to a Monastery)

Be selective: Not every notification deserves your attention. Choose channels, sources, people that truly add value. Unsubscribe, mute, filter.

Set time blocks: Earmark chunks for deep work, email, news. During other times: no checking, no distractions.

Use “information diets”: Just as you might reduce sugar or caffeine, reduce info snacks. Limit social media, avoid clickbait, restrain urge to refresh every app.

Quality over quantity: One well-written, thoughtful article > ten shallow ones. One deep conversation > dozens of likes.

Pause & reflect: Give yourself micro-breaks. At the end of the day, ask: what new thing actually mattered today? What can I ignore tomorrow?

Your Attention is Currency

Information is power – but unfiltered information becomes deadweight. Your brain doesn't need access to every thought, opinion, and update flooding the digital sphere. It needs what helps you think clearly, decide wisely, and connect authentically.

You don't need to retreat to a digital monastery to preserve your sanity. You just need to build thoughtful guardrails around your most precious resource: attention.

In a world drowning in data, the ability to focus becomes a superpower. Use yours wisely.