There's no in-between!

Information vs Attention

We are often concerned about the incredible amount of information that is there available online, waiting for us to reach it with just a click: how do we manage it, how do we keep up with it, how do we make space for it. Technology is developing to allow us to save time and energy to get the information that we need or prefer at the time.

But what about the information that we already have there, in front of us, on our screen?

Last Wednesday I posted on Facebook:

In the corridors of the Attica Hospital and from the lips of a retired psychiatrist: "There are no excuses. There is only Injustice and Stupidity."

Bitter truths at the most critical moments…

The post was in Greek. From my 956 (at the time) FB friends, let’s say that at least 300 are Greek speaking. The post was read by at least 17 persons who “liked” it. Three of them contacted me to ask me what happened.

You see, the post includes a quote and some information, like the place where the quote was heard.

I thanked one of the friends who contacted me to find out why I was at the hospital, mentioning that only a couple of people had asked me. He wrote back that social media has brought us superficially closer, when indeed we have lost our humanity.

Part of me thought that he is right. Part of me wanted to find a good excuse (paradoxically).

What if the crisis, the daily struggle of people to survive, has made us too “busy” to process everything we hear or see?

What if, in the midst of all this information we choose to keep what makes better sense, what makes us feel good, what helps us to keep going?

Finally, what if it is just in human nature not to pay attention to all the information, but just part of it?

In any case it made me wonder about how selectively we read information and how much of it we miss each time.