Information overload - a growing problem, but nothing new

The amount of digital data on the web has been estimated as being more that one zettabyte (10²¹ bytes).
 

As the volume of information grows, it is unsurprising that an increasing number of people are feeling pressured by 'information overload'.
 

You might be surprised to learn, however, that it isn't a recent problem. In her book, Too much to know, Ann Blair traces information overload as far back as the 3rd or 4th century BC to the Book of Ecclesiastes and relates Seneca's 1st century lament 'distringit liborum multitudo' ('the abundance of books is distraction').

Blair is a professor of history at Harvard University. In her examination of the past, Blair finds lessons for our present time: 'It's important to remember that information overload is not unique to our time, lest we fall into doomsaying. At the same time, we need to proceed carefully in the transition to electronic media, lest we lose crucial methods of working that rely on and foster thoughtful decision making. Like generations before us, we need all the tools for gathering and assessing information that we can muster—some inherited from the past, others new to the present. Many of our technologies will no doubt rapidly seem obsolete, but, we can hope, not human attention and judgment, which should continue to be the central components of thoughtful information management.'