The heart of information overload is all about emotion. Oh sure, you can justify overload with logic. With metrics. With statistics. But just read some of the many blog posts and articles about information overload.
The common theme you see in every post is emotion. It’s not logic. And there are only two creatures in the Universe devoid of emotion: Vulcans and Econs. But that certainly doesn’t apply to us mere mortals. (Not that I don’t try… just ask my family how little emotion I exhibit)
When you read all those articles and blog posts it is clear that people’s biggest complaint about Overload is how upset it makes them. It’s too hard to press “mark all read”. They are worried that they’ll miss something important. It’s is frustrating to see a badge with 1100 unread posts staring at them. Their stomach gets nauseated just imagining coming back from vacation to an overflowing news reader.
I wish Information Overload were about logic and science. About how much. About what to read. About what to ignore. About how to filter. About social cues.
But is isn’t.
Dig deep enough and you realize that people are complaining about feeling overloaded. Feeling overwhelmed.
So, any solution must deal with the emotional side of the problem. Any tool that tries to help solve information overload must provide emotional relief. It has to make you feel better.
If it doesn’t change how you feel about blogs, blog reading, rss feeds and all the rest, then it hasn’t really helped your information overload.
It’s simple enough to create a tool that should help with overload. Lots of people have tried things to solve the problem. And some of the tools even help a little bit. Yet, even though people argue that their technology X should help with information overload, it doesn’t seem to. Tool Y doesn’t really benefit its users. Tools Z can’t really solve the problem for folks. And how do you know? Because the users don’t feel any better.
If a tool really helps with information overload, then it has to be because when you use the tool you feel different. Powerful. Competent. Able to take on the blogosphere. Or at least able to get to the posts you want and comfortably ignore the rest.
Once you really have the right tools to handle the overload, the emotion can be mastered. You can now approach the mass of blogs and posts without worry that you’ll miss something important. You can leave on vacation with the gnawing fear of what awaits you on your return. Call it a Zen state or call it Kolinahr.
We think Bscopes is just such a tool. One that makes its users feel successful. Able. Confident.
Are we succeeding? Do you agree? Tell us. Send us feedback. Let us know how you… feel.
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