Skip to main content

Information overload


Consider for a moment that the average person in a first world country consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words in a single day.

Putting it into perspective, this massive consumption is made up of TV, video games, radio, the internet, text messages and social media.

The average social media user consumes 285 pieces of information a day.1

If you think 100,000 word is a lot, then consider that contained in these 285 pieces of social media information is around 50,000 words.

Note though that this is all disparate information about a multitude of topics, and let’s face it, how much of it are we actually paying attention to?

Yet, this is an astounding amount of stuff that we are taking on-board. But, if you take a moment, pause, and ask “What is all this stuff about?” then I think our perspective changes just a bit. 

If I open up my Facebook page and scroll down, I have a story on how socialism ruined Brazil, someone’s photo of the northern most tip of Australia, a picture of meat loaf, how the Greens are promoting “safe sexting” for 12 year old girls and an article declaring Guam to be abortion free.  

If I am honest I have to ask, are these the things of God? Or are they the things of the World? On its worst days Facebook would have to be one of the more Godless, benighted places you can go. On good days I can see stories about hospital staff praying before they start their shift. On good days I find out about the real heart that still beats out there somewhere. Yet, that is only the stories from the people I chose to follow.

Even though I filter it, Facebook, and that’s only part of the bombardment of information, shows me a glimpse of the World. It shows me that out there still are “…the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions.” (1 John 2:16) Essentially what is happening is that the World is exerting influence on us. Paul tells us “…do not be conformed to this world…” (Romans 12:2) The suggestion here is that some of the people in Rome reading his letter were conformed. 

Step back from it, Paul exhorts us, and renew our minds.

It strikes me that if we are taking in truckloads of the wrong information, the wrong mulch as it were, then what is it we are growing? What kind of fruit? What is the source of our wisdom when we are faced with what the world wants to throw at us? Is our faith deep enough to endure the trials James refers to? (James 1:2) Endure them, let alone find them joy? 

Psalm 1 tells us that the person who contemplates the Word of God is blessed. The person who meditates on Scripture, day and night, grows strong, bears fruit and does not wither. “In all he does, he prospers.” (Ps 1:3)

We are going to be bombarded by information regardless, it is part of the world we live in. But if we are grounded in the Bible, if we rely first on God’s Word, if Scripture is where we start and where we finish, then we aren’t conforming but transforming.


1.       1. Social media overload – How much information do we process each day? Online at https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-media-overload/

Popular posts from this blog

When life gives you lemons, think about the Cross

  Have you ever had one of those times when you just want to stand there and scream, not out of anger but out of sheer frustration? Sometimes when you have doubts that layer one on top of the other things start looking a lot like a Sara Lee pastry. What then? That old quip, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” springs quickly to mind, but that isn’t really helpful is it? How can I make lemonade out of doubts? I can sit in the sun and sip that lemonade and still feel troubled by the things around me, by the grumps I have with my circumstances. So what do you do about doubt? The opening line to the hymn looms out of the shadows: “When my love to Christ grows weak, When for deeper faith I seek, Then in thought I go to thee, Garden of Gethsemane.” To think on this, I am reminded how small I am. How much tension, anxiety, even terror Our Lord must have felt while He prayed in the Garden. O, Father, take this cup from me, but only if it is Your will. He walked ahead, firm in His re...
Read more

Jesus, meek and mild

One of the things we get caught up on as Christian's is the word 'meek.' Somehow this word has come to mean wimpy, rather than just mild or gentle.  What was the original meaning? The word πραυς 'praus' is difficult to translate. Being meek does not mean being 'weak.' If we study Jesus as He is presented in the Gospel's we find He is anything but wishy washy. Here is a man who is firm and decisive in His actions. There is so much restrained strength in Him. And that's what meek means.  Meek is God's Strength, ALL of His strength under control in Christ.  We are limited in English as we do not have a word that encompasses this blend of both gentleness and strength.  Jesus is God's strength under control; it is now out own strength we are looking to. It is trust in God's goodness and control over any given situation, rather than self assertion or self reliance, is it Christ reliance. It is a deep knowledge that God's goodness is in acti...
Read more

Every thought is born of faith.

One of the things we do a lot of everyday, and we probably don't acknowledge it much, is thinking. Excuse my pun, but we don't think about the act or fact of thinking. Well, not very often, and usually only in passing. Most times it happens when someone asks "What do you think about that?" or "What are your thoughts on this?" But what is a thought? And for that matter what is thinking? A thought it seems is indeed one of those little pole vaulting zaps of electro-chemical energy, hopping from synapse to synapse.     Just as your heart beats and you lungs breath your brain thinks. That's what it's made to do. 100 billion nerve cells. All working towards the functioning of your body, and the 80,000 thoughts you have each and every day. I'm not sure I'm conscious of having that many, I mean, 80,000 is a lot (and who figures this stuff out? How on earth do you put a figure on that? Or is it one of those informed guestimates you are often given w...
Read more