Too much information

by Doug Floyd

Too much Information

I canceled my satellite television. Somehow the endless choices of hundreds of

programming choices no longer seemed appealing. And at times, I have even thought
about canceling my Internet. I know, blasphemy. Sure I love meeting people from
around the globe and I’ve enjoyed tuning into multiple perspectives, and who can
resist the latest Google gadget? Yet, most of the time, this endless stream of
information seems like a distraction, like a substitute for living.

I hesitate to enter another blog, filling the web world with yet another blast of
0s and 1s translated into text, images and words for your viewing pleasure. When I
first heard about the Internet in the early 90s, I wondered if it would be a good
thing or a bad thing. I’m still wondering.

And yet, it’s here. I’m here. And I’m still writing.

Last July, in my first blog, I raised questions about the current state of the
world. I’m still thinking about those questions. For the next few minutes, I am
going to describe my intuitive of sense of the world. I will avoid using
references (although I most certainly have been impacted by other thinkers). I
just need to write out what I’ve been thinking. You’re welcome to join me or just
as welcome to tune me out because you’ve probably got better things to do. (Like
checking your RSS aggregator.)

Information drowns us. Bits of data pelt our brains and ears and eyes like the
continuous drip of some ancient water torture. Over time our senses deaden and we
lose all ability to distinguish between drips. One drip seems much like the other
drip. Just a repetitive droning: on and on and on and on and on and on.

The human body receives far more information than it can process. So it filters.
It distinguishes sensations we need to know from sensations we can forget about.
Otherwise we might go insane: and some people do. Some people don’t have effective
filters: they may hear too many sounds, feel too many sensations, see too many
things. Their mind tries to process all those bits and soon they are confused and
tormented. Some persons weave all this information into strange theories of world
conspiracy while others become prophets or artists.

Thank God for those filters. They help us determine the bits of information we
absolutely need and the ones we can forget about.

A group of humans may begin to develop similar habits. Each human in a group is
contributing information to the group. As the group grows, so does the
information. At some point, there is simply too much information for everyone to
process and to remain in the group: at this point some type of filter emerges to
help manage the flow of information.

These filters are also known as gatekeepers. Gatekeepers manage the flow as well
as the type of information entering the flow. Gatekeepers can help create
continuity within the group. In fact, when gatekeepers are over-active or when we
feel they use their power to oppress us, we critique the gatekeepers. We may blame
our distorted view of the world on their influence and at times we may be right.

As the medieval world transitioned into a modern world, gatekeepers adapted to the
growing modern culture. These gatekeepers managed the flow and type of information
to the persons throughout the society. There were still a variety of groups of
people but most managed to function together in a common web through the mediation
of various gatekeepers who helped keep some sense of continuity in the world. (But
this was not without many bloody fights!)

The first gatekeepers a person meets is normally the mother and father. They
manage the flow of information to the child and provide an interpretive lens.
After the family, we find gatekeepers in the local community and the church: both
of which reinforce the interpretive lens and provide filters. The family,
community and church are like gatekeepers within a tribe. They connect us to our
roots.

But above these gatekeepers are meta-gatekeepers who control information to the
tribes and help keep all the tribes in some continuity. These may include
government, school systems, and press/mass media. All of these adapted and played
a specific role within the modern world. Most of the time there was enough
continuity between the meta-gatekeepers and the local tribes, to maintain some
type of common language—even when people may have radically differing
perspectives.

But not everything would or could last forever. By the end of the 19th century, a
few thinkers had already begun to see past the gatekeepers. People like Soren
Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche saw cracks in the foundation of the modern
world.

For over 100 hundred the tiny cracks gradually spread through the fabric of modern
societies, and by the mid twentieth century, some people already began talking
about a post-modern world. Gradually the gatekeepers lost their power. It is
difficult for me to pinpoint, but I think the Watergate controversy of the 70s
marked a fundamental shift for the government as gatekeeper.

Public trust in the government sank to an all time low and politicians retreated
more and more into tribal positions finding it harder and harder to mediate one
common vision of the modern world. Their language became so tribe bound that by
the mid 90s, we could no longer even agree on the meaning of what “is” is.

Several big blows to the media as gatekeeper came with the 2004 election as
bloggers consistently challenged their right and ability to effectively serve as
gatekeepers. By the end of the 2004 election cycle, some people were tempted to
find out their news only from members of their tribe.

I think the school system is still transitioning but its will inevitably lose its
status as a modernist gatekeeper. Already non-accredited informal schools are
rapidly multiplying throughout the nation. Much like bloggers, these non-
traditional schools are diversifying the academic content and breaking the
stronghold of the traditional gatekeepers.

In a way, all this seems like a good thing. No control. No one telling me how to
think. Yet, in the absence of these gatekeepers, we lose all filters. We are
bombarded with information. So much information confronts us from so many
different angles, we lose our ability to distinguish good information from bad
information. Thus all is information is suspect.

In such an overflow, words lose their meaning. Poetry, the art which guards our
words, is forgotten. No one has time to read or think about poetry. Instead, we
bathe in an a non-stop onslaught of words. From the moment we awake to the moment
we fall asleep, we are bombarded with information bits. Everyone has Attention
Deficit Disorder: and everyone laughs about it. Everyone is becoming psychotic.
The stress of this post-modern age will on grow as the chaos intensifies. And it
will continue to intensify: for a season. The war on terror is just one sign of
modern world in chaos. There are far more many wars going on. Our talk shows to
our governments seem like mini war zones at times with persons hurling invectives
upon one another like hand grenades.

They cannot debates in any classical sense because they cannot agree on the
meaning of their words, let alone what information in important and how should it
be understood. All they can do is engage in verbal duels. The loudest, crassest
voices often shouts down the weaker voice.

In this world of chaos, gatekeepers at every level struggle to understand how to

act and how to respond. Take churches for example. Some turn to economics,
believing the market drives everything. If I find my authority in the market, then
I will develop my systems around the fickleness of an ever-changing market. Some
churches for example, change their worship styles and preaching styles and
architecture to fit the demands of today’s market. Of course, that market may
change tomorrow.

Others look to tradition as a source of authority: either they grow stiffer in

some fundamentalist expression of their faith or they embrace ancient forms and
seek to breathe new life in them today.

This chaos simply cannot go on forever. As a Trinitarian Christian, I anticipate

the rebirth of all things even now. I look forward with hope for we are truly
moving toward the hope of God fully revealed to man.

Thus chaos will not overrun the earth. Eventually, new gatekeepers will emerge (or
the old gatekeepers will re-emerge with newly defined filtering systems). At some
point, our desire for continuity will overcome the extreme neo-tribalism period we
are entering, and we’ll find new ways to connect our various tribes in some form
of common life. Either we’ll find a way or a greater power will impose it and the
people will accept it. This new world will probably mold some aspects of
modernism, pre-modernism and possibly other newer perspective into a way of seeing
that provides some level of continuity for the multiple tribes.

But for now, we live in a growing cacophony of data. The question for me is, “How
do I live in this increasing chaos, as a relational person that beholds a new
heaven and new earth and lives toward the reality of that kingdom even now?” I
don’t always know.

Part of it may have to with willingly denying myself some of the all-you-can-
consume smorgasbord of data streaming at me from all directions. So I canceled my
satellite television. What’s next? I don’t know, but I think it has something to
with embracing the cross, exposing my weaknesses, and seeking to living in the
reality of kingdom rooted in the relational love of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit.