Have you anytime felt that sensation as if too much is jammed up and crammed inside our tiny brains? That feeling of fatigue and suffocation when one can’t think straight? Do you feel a kind of heaviness in the mind on some days? Those days when we feel weary and tired; not light and bright, as if there is too much pressure or burden?

The reasons could be many indeed. However, one reason which comes to mind is the loads and loads of junk with which we are filling up our minds. Don’t you think so? There is an explosion of information and our cups are overflowing, even as we are drowning in it. And worse still, the entire extra load of information which we neither sometimes need and nor which is often correct—is turning a large number of people towards pessimism. Of course, there are many other reasons for the pressures and stress and that heaviness in our lives, but one of them certainly is the overdose of information.

Think about it for a moment. There is too much load we carry within us because we know a little bit too much, even as we ceaselessly strive to know still more! We seem to be forever rushing and pushing ourselves far too much to know it all! Be it about politics or about sports or about crimes or about the world of glitz and glamour---we keep digging for information. To make the matters worse, there are giant-sized boulders thrown at us all day long by our friends and family on whatsapp groups. By way of pictures, videos and wisdom-filled messages, we are being crushed under the boulders. As soon as we get up in the morning, we are desperate to check all the messages, and for some of us—it is important to read all of the wise advices and see all the pictures and videos sent on the phone. Then we are eager to check what has transpired on the national and global scene while we were asleep. We want to know how many have been killed or abused or accused of corruption or if there was any mud-slinging that happened between two political or business or Bollywood rivals. We want to know it all, whether it concerns us or not; whether it makes us feel good or terrible; whether we can do anything about any of it or not and whether it is even correct or not.

Somebody has correctly understood the problem and commented: “In the age of technology there is constant access to vast amounts of information. The basket overflows; people get over-whelmed and the eye of the storm is not much about what goes on in the world—but it is the confusion of how to think, feel, digest and react to what goes on.”

All the information that streams in our brain and seeps in our psyche, cannot possibly be digested and certainly not at the same pace at which the information is hitting us. While there is a large dose with which we are involuntarily bombarded, there are also large amounts of info which we deliberately dig and seek. We want to know everything. We keep checking exchange rates, gold prices, weather forecasts, recipes, tips to lose weight, stock prices and even offers and Sales in shops. We try to find the prices of things we have no need or inclination to buy. We read stuff which is not needed or desirable; we speak and seek a lot which is neither needed and nor is relevant or desirable. We keep on googling and checking about events, places, people, and diseases---none of which adds any real value to the quality of our lives.

Don’t you remember and miss those good old days before this information explosion hit us? Those times when we knew little and had limited access to information. We did not know all the developments and on-going events in all parts of the world and yet whatever we knew, we stored and analysed it better. We used that information to understand our nations and communities better or to be better teachers and policymakers. Even letters, greeting cards and messages from friends and family reached us at leisure. And there was a limit to how much could be shared. And because we could not share instantaneously and share unlimited stuff, we were used to expressing our emotions with restraint. There was no rush or pressure. Everything, including information, had its own pace. We were not desperate to know it all and we never felt uneasy about not knowing certain bits of information. Today, information travels at great speed; and there is no limit to the amount of information we wish to convey. Hence we share too much and too fast, and this includes the negative emotions as well.