Keeping Up in the Information Age

When I was knee-deep in the digital marketing swamp, I thought I could keep up with it all—knowledge, trends, my inbox, you name it. My goal was to become some kind of 21st-century renaissance woman who would become one of the expected heroes of the information age. Yeah, I was dead wrong about that. It turns out trying to “keep up” with everything in the information age is like trying to drink from a firehose while riding a rollercoaster, one that’s also on fire.

It finally came down to a reality check for me. I discovered, through great cost of time and energy, that anyone who claims they’ve mastered the art of keeping up in this era of constant digital bombardment is either lying or has achieved a Zen-like detachment from the world. While I must admire that level of denial for its sheer lunacy, I simply don’t have the energy to pretend anymore. It’s healthier not to bother. I know, this is a travesty coming from a decade-plus veteran of digital marketing; but it’s true. We’ve been told for years that we should “stay informed,” but what they really mean is “drown in a sea of irrelevant nonsense.”

Now, having varied interests isn’t the problem. I have plenty of those—and over time I’ve had to carefully curate them like a museum of obscure curiosities. But when life throws actual responsibilities at you—like, say, taxes, jobs, or remembering to feed yourself—something’s got to give. Unfortunately, it’s usually the important stuff that slips through the cracks. So many times, I’ve found myself neck-deep in some YouTube video on an obscure topic when I suddenly remember that, oh right, I have actual priorities to pursue.

Don’t even get me started on the corporate cesspool we’re wading through every day. We can’t have a day without one or more advertisements seeping into our consciousness. Big business has the audacity to turn everything we need, love, and care about into a product, including our attention spans. At this point, I’m half-convinced our brains are being rented out to the highest bidder in 30-second increments—while we’re none the wiser, of course. Each day, I feel more like we’re all living in a dystopian novel, except it’s not fiction, and I can’t close the book.

It turns out there’s really only one solution to keeping up with the information age: just stop trying. Honestl, mindfully pick your interests, let them fuel your passion, and leave the rest to those who still believe in the myth of “keeping up.” Sure, some people can dip their toes into every trendy little pool of knowledge, but not me. I’m not much of a sampler anymore—I’ve had to become more of an all-in or not-at-all kind of gal. If you want me to care about something, it better be worth my while and actually improve some aspect of my life.

At this point, my entire life’s philosophy revolves around not letting unnecessary crap worm its way into my consciousness. We all have a limited capacity inside our skulls—each of us has only so much bandwidth, and I’m reserving mine for things that matter. These are the people I love, the projects I care about, and figuring out how to nap more effectively.

Whatever you do, never let the ones who matter most drop off your radar. Yes, it’s easy to get distracted by every shiny new thing. It seems we’ve been trained by mass media to be hapless magpies in human form. But you have to unlearn that training, no matter what it takes, or you’ll lose sight of the people who actually depend on you. Keeping up with them is non-negotiable. The moment you fall behind with them, you’re not just missing a deadline or something to discuss over lunch, but you’re missing the entire point of being human in the first place.

Let the internet do its thing. Just let the news cycle swirl down the drain into oblivion. I’m more than happy to blissfully ignore 99 percent of it, while finally figuring out how to keep up with the things that count.

~ Amelia Desertsong