Are you an info junkie?

By | April 12, 2017

It is hard not to be a info junkie in this day and age where information overload is rampant. As I take in a lot of information while not always considering its value I asked myself: ‘Am I an info junkie?’ After thinking this over for a while I must admit that to a certain extant this seems to be the case.

How do you know you are an info junkie?

The best way to find out is to isolate yourself from any and all distraction. No radio, mobile phone, TV, computer or agenda. Take a seat and close your eyes. Stay seated for a while doing absolutely nothing. Notice what happens. When you are an info junkie your mind will be restless. You will not feel well. The silence is getting at you. There is no flow of information that awakens all kinds of emotions or feelings. You are missing these feelings. You are missing the kick that information brings about in you. It kept you occupied.

Your mind will protest by producing all kinds of thoughts and pictures to fill up the gab. Many people will feel very uneasy when they disconnect from all outside stimuli. Without this input they don’t know on what to direct their attention. On nothing?

There you are in no man’s land alone without any distraction. Why would you do this to yourself? Not a nice experience when you start out with this. You already have so many thoughts in your mind that you didn’t ask for and now this even seems to intensive. Well, if that is you experience when you do this then we can safely assume that you are an information junkie.  You have a hard time to feel well without this constant flow of information you allow yourself to take in. You think you need it to keep yourself occupied.

When you are an information junky you will find it hard to relax. You keep stimulating yourself with information. From one kick to the next. You want to feel the excitement that it brings you. Information addiction isn’t only caused by all the media outlets that we use in this modern world. It is also caused by the endless stream of communication that you receive from people that are part of your life with all the additional emotions and desires.

The cause of information addiction is the fear of silence or the fear of emptiness.

You feel lonely without information. You get thrown back on yourself. Some people get into a panic attack when left without the stimulation that information brings them.

Let’s have a look at what information is most addictive to us.

Here a summary of types of information that can bring about this addiction. It is not a complete list. There might be a lot more tricks that can be used to keep you entertained. You will notice that the media make use of these types of information a lot. As if they know that they can make you stick with them in this way.

Incomplete information.

Information that will give you a good feeling.

Too general information that can be explained in many different ways.

Information that suggests that something is true or untrue.

Information that makes you laugh.

Information that makes you cry.

Information that makes you feel outraged.

Information to make you feel exited.

Information to ridicule others.

Information to put people up against each other.

We will not classify these types of information as good or bad. I just want to bring to your attention that they stimulate addiction.

‘So what?’, you might think.

The problem with this is that there is information that does matter. There is information that, when taken serious and used properly, can bring desirable changes in the society at large. And this is what tends to get snowed under by all this addictive information. Maybe you have asked yourself why there is so little improvement in human evolution. Why are we, after all these thousands of years, still in war with each other. Why can we not live in harmony with nature and with each other. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?

We live in a time were all kinds of information is accessible to billions of people. No matter what you want to know you will most probably find it on the internet. You can get addicted to all above mentioned types of information and it isn’t a complete summery as I stated before. There however is a type of information that you cannot get addicted to and that is what I call vital information.

I have defined the term vital information as follows:

Vital Information =

Information that has the potential to improve human relations and circumstances without causing too much damage to the environment.

Most people who are info junkies consider this type of information extremely boring. It doesn’t produce the kick they want from information.

Take facebook as an example and how people make use of this medium and become totally addicted to it. A lot of what they share is on the level of look how pretty I am or what do you think of my new profile picture or have you heard about bla, bla, bla. It often is about excitement and being interesting.

Vital information can also be very exiting when you put it to use but that is not how the info junkie looks at it. The info junkie needs information that triggers emotions in order to feel good or bad. All information will do as long as it gives a kick. It is the kick that the info junkie strives at in order to stay away from the silence or emptiness

It is scientifically proven that meditation improves your mental health. I am convinced that it can have a positive effect on information addiction. It is for this reason that I have decided to meditate daily for a short time. I want to overcome my information addiction even though it isn’t of a severe nature.

What about you? Do you like to join me?

If you don’t know anything about meditation take a look at this. Keep it simple.

Let me know what it does for your information addiction if you have one.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.