New Media Overload – Part 1

You may have heard the phrase “you can never get too much of a good thing.” While I’ve never been one to agree with the phrase, I’ve come to realize the real truth of my disagreement with it in the last few weeks. No, I’m not thinking about good food, good times, or even good weather. I’m talking about being involved in too many social networking and new media circles. Too much online networking, discussions, and general clutter.

Part 1: My own personal chaos

As you know, I’m intimately involved in new media and podcasting. If you've read my bio, I’ve spent more cumulative days behind the podcasting mic than nearly anyone in the medium. Podcasting is really one of a series of new media / social networking mediums that are paving the way for a new form of communication, interaction, and entertainment. But my involvement in new media goes well beyond the 7 or 8 podcasts I produce a week. I’m involved in other online communities as well. I have a presence on MySpace, Second Life, LinkedIn, forum boards a-plenty (such as the Podcast Pickle). I participate in non-stop chats and partial chats through Twitter and Skype. I subscribe to and comment on several blogs. I have in the neighborhood of 80-100 podcast subscriptions sitting in iTunes. I monitor sites like Digg for news, interesting stories, and videos. I have RSS feeds running to monitor Technorati, Podzinger, and other new media search engines. I’ve been a part of a couple weather listservs for years. Yet, this barely scratches the surface of areas I could and feel I need to be involved in.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve begun to become overloaded. Not necessarily with the pull to participate in each of these communities, but to simply say current with what is going on. The frenzied pace of conversations to keep up with, draw information from, and participate in only seems to grow. The constant battle to stay on top of conversations has affected my ability to accomplish much else. With notifications of new blog entries, Twitter messages, news stories, emails, chats, and events in Second Life, my ability to concentrate is almost gone. My brain has become a battlefield of many for my attention, and I can’t keep any of it straight. So I sit, brain bouncing from one thing to the next, anxious that I’m missing something while there are things right in front of me that deserve my undivided attention. I try to concentrate, but am simply unable to. The desire to be intimately involved in new media has given me ADD.

The weather in Kansas City right now is beautiful. The sun is shining, it’s warm out, and the world is showing its first signs of awakening from winter. We were out of bread for sandwiches at home, so in my usual hurried pace, I walk/sprinted to a nearby restaurant. Still on my blistering pace, I called up to comment on a podcast I had just finished listening to. Before I knew it, I was ordering my food and rushing out the door bound for work.

My walk takes me through a park. On the way back, I see a picnic table and I get a crazy idea. Why not just sit down, enjoy the weather, and eat outside. That short time gave me a chance to simply relax unconnected from the chaotic world around me. I could feel the breeze, watch people walking through the park, and listen to the birds. It was a time to ease stress, to pray, and refocus. No iPod, no blogs, no IMs. I arrived back at work with a new freshness. I was able to easily troubleshoot a problem that would have sent me into a tailspin ending in a chaotic roadblock the last few weeks.

The few minutes I took to simply relax, and more importantly, disconnect, made a huge impact. I realized that I desperately need to be purposeful in finding some time in the next few weeks to simply get away for a few hours. Back home, it was a short drive to the Kettle Moraine State Forest. In Indiana, it was the same short drive to get to Lake Michigan and the dunes. Here… I need to find a place away from the noise and chaos of the city to simply enjoy the world that god has created around us. As nearly any parent can tell you, those times you can really experience quiet are precious.

Most importantly, I need to re-prioritize exactly how and what new media avenues I consume and participate in. I’ve already turned off the Twitter IM. Blogs only get auto checked every few hours. Updates to other social networking sites are essentially on hold until I can think properly again, decide those things that are the most important, and engage in those things rather than trying to do it all. The iPod needs to go off from time to time so I can focus on the main thing I’m doing. Multitasking simply can not involve doing 4 or 5 things at once. In short, DECLUTTER.

All of this from simply taking 15 minutes to listen to the birds, feel the breeze, pray, and have NOTHING else on my mind. THAT’s the kind of multitasking to enjoy.

Next installment: A community spread thin