Meggan Lionberger
Dr. Khoo
COMM 202
23 September 2014
Information Overload: Brain Freeze In her essay, “I Can’t Think!” Sharon Begley explains the specific ways in which technology is leading to information overload and is thus hindering the decisions people make on a daily basis. The main thesis: mass amounts of information leads to information overload, which causes our brains to freeze, and thus hinders the quality of the decisions we make, is supported by numerous research studies and facts that are included in this essay.
The advances in technology and mass media in recent years have led the immediacy of information to be at an unprecedented level. One simply can Google a question on their computer, phone, or tablet, and have a mass amount of results in a matter of seconds. Not…show more content… Begley proves this via the reference of a 2006 study that stated the more information college students had pertaining to job searches, the less satisfied they were with their final decision, and thus they believed they would have been happier in a different job. People often talk themselves into thinking they made a wrong decision and if they had analyzed more information, they would have made the correct one. However, neither is true.
Additionally, the human brain pays more attention to change than to quality, meaning that we subconsciously apply more weight to information that came most recently, rather than that of the highest quality. As an example for this phenomenon, Begley states how if someone were to receive a mass amount of text messages within an hour long time period leading up to making a decision, the final text messages the person receives right before making the decision will have the most impact. This is not a conscious decision that is made, however it is simply how the mind works, and thus impacts the