You may have heard your friends complain that there's too much information on the Internet. And understandably so. It seems you start researching one topic and soon find yourself down the rabbit hole of something completely different. Sometimes you find yourself compelled to obey the command "click here" even though you know it's only site related to dieting.
Maybe the problem isn't so much about information overload as it is about a failure of our personal filters. We tend to surf the web like two-year olds in a toy store, bouncing from one enticing aisle to another and frustrating ourselves because we can't get to all the toys quick enough. As an adult going through the same toy store, we know what we're looking for. With a cursory glance at the endless enticing choices available, we quickly filter out what we don't want and focus on finding those desirable goodies that we wanted in the first place.
To keep us from being overwhelmed when we're using the Internet, perhaps we should use the same process of filtering. This could mean having your e-mail program automatically organize your incoming messages into descriptive folders for later viewing. Or restricting your favorite topics to one or two top-notch sites. Or better yet, using that ultimate filter --- the computer's off button.
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