Information Consumption
Has your brain been hijacked?
We live in the information age. The term “Information Age” gets thrown around like any other arbitrary buzz term, but when you think about it, we’re really living in the second Industrial Revolution.
Where you can access your phone’s internet connection, you have access to more information than 99% of all human beings ever had.
That’s not all – soon, you won’t need to be a part of the equation. There are washing machines that sync with your phone and you can control your home’s central heating from your workplace. Eventually, these apps will work automatically; when you leave work, your house will switch on and you’ll be home in time for dinner. That sort of thing.
However, this next revolution isn’t just a revolution in name; it’s going to be massively disruptive.
That’s all talk for another day – and probably someone with a bigger brain than me. But I can tell you that easy access to information is a double-edged sword.
The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”
Jamie’s Latest Mini-Project
In a move that probably annoys the various people who I’m supposed to respond to, I’ve taken the past few days off the internet. Obviously that’s easier said than done when you run an online business like I do.
I’ve given myself twenty minutes in the morning to check my emails, and then twenty minutes at the end of the day to post the articles I need to post, paste in replies to those emails (which I’m writing offline) and do all the other online stuff.
There are kinks in the process, but it’s actually worked. As a proof of concept, it’s also shown that most of the time I spend online is unproductive.
My productivity has soared since I started doing this a few days ago. It’s a bit early to tell – and I’ll update after a significant length of time (if I can stick to it) – but I can only assume that this is the way forward.
My brain feels a lot better as well.
Over-Consumption
I’ve written before about spending too much time on the internet. It’s really weird to say – but I’m sure people can relate to this – you can easily get addicted to browsing the internet looking for new stuff to read about. (Honestly, I don’t get how anyone can be bored anymore.)
That said, I’m 90% sure that overindulgent information consumption is an addiction, and I have it in some form. Sadly, I don’t think it’s an addiction that I could get a cool drug prescription to deal with. (Just kidding.)
With internet business and the nature of the internet in general, it’s easy to click, click, and click everywhere. It’s easy to assume that this information is valuable. In most cases, it’s not. The average person on the internet isn’t an expert – we’ll talk later about that.
There’ve been psychological studies on social media; it boils down to the fact that if you spend any significant time on social media, you’ll feel depressed. This is – in my experience – true with endlessly browsing whatever sites I find. Time goes by quicker, you get less done and you fill your head with rubbish information.
Look – this is all negative stuff and negative stuff doesn’t get anyone anywhere. If this sounds like you, then let’s get fixing the issue without delay.
Solving Over-Consumption of Information
The first step is admitting you have a problem. (I’ll leave the addiction thing behind now – I feel disrespectful when there are alcoholics and drug users with much larger issues than spending too much time on Wikipedia.)
The second step is realising you don’t need to spend as much time on the internet as you think. Weird thoughts creep in:
- Do I need to check my emails?
- What if Website X has released a new post?
- Have I sold another book on Kindle?
- How many visitors has my website had today?
The third step is limiting you to the bare essentials. By bare essentials… I mean it. Say you’re a freelance writer. You get orders on a regular basis. You think, “I need to check my emails to see if new orders have come in.”
No you don’t. Check in the morning. Five minutes. Check in the evening. Five more minutes. If orders come in, write down what they are. Do them offline. If you need to research, then either do it in a book or limit your time with a stopwatch.
You don’t need to see your site stats update daily. You don’t need to see how much affiliate money is piling up or what your royalties are. You’ll get a statement at the end of the month with your earnings.
You certainly don’t need to check your social media constantly. (I say, but I don’t like social media.) Use automation tools and schedule stuff. Allocate time to respond to people and don’t stray outside it.
Books Are Better Than Blogs
The majority of the internet is filled with rubbish content. I’ve put blogs in the subtitle, but the rule is triply-true for forums, chatrooms and other various comment sections.
Most people don’t know what they’re talking about online. You can have a guy write a blog post about how to make thousands a month with a blog and then see he lives in a $100 a month studio flat in some third-world country.
You’ll see people give horrendous advice… this latest internet-free period came as a result of me reading some stupid conversation on a writing subreddit where “successful writers” were talking about how it was impossible to release 4-5 books a year and they didn’t know anyone successful who released more than 2-3.
Needless to say, that information is inaccurate, and yet they were filling the discussion with this inaccurate information.
Regardless, internet discussions contain people with no experience, no knowledge and yet big opinions. Disagree and you’re the anti-Christ.
If you need to read and consume information (learning is good) without being subject to the fluff, then read books instead. Good books are worth more than years of blog consumption.
This is especially true for subjects where you’re researching for lucrative business endeavours. Say you’re a legal copywriter; don’t go online for advice. Read books on the law. You’ll be more knowledgable and more successful.
Every semester university students drop their required reading list books off at charity stores. Get some deals. You can get hundreds of great books on Amazon for basically the price of having them shipped to you.
Read them, and you’ll not only get a higher quality education, but you’ll also avoid the negative effects of sitting on the internet all day.
Final Thoughts
It’s pretty counterintuitive to write a blog post about avoiding the internet. However, I’ve always tried to make this blog a useful resource based on what I’m doing at the moment. This is a project that is long overdue, and a few days into it, I’m already feeling better.
If you’re someone who needs to cut down on internet time, give it a try, and when you get back let me know what works for you. It’s something I talk about with quite a few friends of the blog, so pooling the knowledge will help us all.
In the meantime, don’t worry if you stop reading this site every day… I won’t be offended because I’m not checking the stats all the time!