Is Information Overload Draining Us?

[JamesU]

I don't want the funniest member award, too much pressure.

 

[Moonbear]

I actually don't even have cable, or a dish. Just the internet.
Not paying attention to 'it' is something I have become accustomed to.

I didn't have cable until recently, and only because I couldn't even get the basic networks on rabbit ears (plus I needed to get cable to get my internet...big pain, but now I'm glad I have high speed).

But, walk into the grocery store and there are the magazines at the check-out counter. Plus, the billboards going to the grocery store. Then, the little ads in the shopping carts at the grocery store.
Like, c'mon advertisers, give us a break.

I hardly ever notice them. I think I spend more time staring at the candy next to the register and to the other strange people in the store than to the magazines. Actually, the last time I remember looking at magazines in the store was when I was still living in NJ...the grocery store lines could get very long there (much higher population than anyplace I've lived since), so you'd notice everything simply out of boredom. It was better than staring at your toes. I don't even know if the grocery stores still have the ads on the carts. I don't remember noticing them in a while. I think I noticed when they were brand new, but not since then.

I think the current method of mass-distributing information has de-sensitized individuals and made them re-active. People have become so accustomed to "new" info that they seek it out, even if it is not there.

That wouldn't be desensitized the way you're describing it...desensitized would mean you're less reactive. I think the more it's around, the less you react to it. Everything just blends together and it gets easier to ignore it when it doesn't jump out as anything special. Who seeks it out? Right now, I'm hanging out in a hotel room with nothing but the TV and my computer, and every time I look at the TV, I realize a different show is on...forget noticing commercials, I'm not even noticing the shows that are on because I've been focused on the computer.

Even I have lurked time to time at PF to see what "new" threads there are.
I think I, and many individuals, have been lulled into a sense of complacency.

What would seeking new threads of interest to you have to do with complacency or information overload or advertising?

 

[tribdog]

I don't want the funniest member award, too much pressure.

I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about

 

[JamesU]

I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about

great, and maybe Danger can relieve you of some pressure

 

[tribdog]

I've got some pressure you can relieve. you got purdy lips

 

[Smurf]

no way. Humans are perfectly capable of retaining and understanding massive amounts of information. I myself am constantly amazed at how much I can remember when I actually care to... and even when I don't (hell I still remember my phone number from when I was 6 years old, 229-5729)

 

[DaveC426913]

With all the advertising of products going on in the media, billions of dollars being spent to present you with thousands of TV ads, how many ads can an individual actually remember?

You guys realize that the whole point of commericals is that they're NOT remembered, right?

Their message goes right past our conscious mind and is stored as an association between a brand identity and a feeling (i.e. a positive one).

When you go to the store next, and you're tired and in a hurry and the kids are biting your ankles, and you reach for a tube of toothpaste, you will, by and large, without thinking about it, grab the one that your mind is most "comfortable" or "familiar" with.

Which one you grab is, other things being equal, a result of how well the marketing team did their job.

The information overload actually helps them, because it inhibits our rational, conscious minds from stopping long enough to ask "which of these tubes of toothpaste is the BEST one?"

 

[jimmie]

You guys realize that the whole point of commericals is that they're NOT remembered, right

Yes. The problem, like I said, is that sometimes they do get remembered, taking up valuable space on my "harddrive".

The information overload actually helps them, because it inhibits our rational, conscious minds from stopping long enough to ask "which of these tubes of toothpaste is the BEST one?"

Exactly!

And to take that a bit further, are ANY of the tubes of toothpaste presented in front of me the "best" one?

The democratic process dictates that so long as one of the tubes of toothpaste are chosen, the democratic system has succeeded.

I would like to think that the actual, undeniable "best" tube of toothpaste would be aware of the possibility of how information overload inhibits the rational, conscious mind, and thus, would not submit itself to the far too common practice of touting itself to individuals as the best "candidate", not to mention camparing itself to other "candidates" of toothpaste.

Such a democratic process of pitching wares, including toothpaste, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Smasherman]

The news media makes its living by providing those details. And I sometimes think its at the expense of a calm mind.

This is exactly why I don't watch any commercials if I can avoid them. I remember watching television at a friend's house once after not watching television for a long time. It was nearly painful how clouded my mind became after little over an hour.

 

[Moonbear]

When you go to the store next, and you're tired and in a hurry and the kids are biting your ankles, and you reach for a tube of toothpaste, you will, by and large, without thinking about it, grab the one that your mind is most "comfortable" or "familiar" with.

Am I the only person who actually stands in front of the toothpaste aisle baffled at the amazing variety of toothpastes now available, reading every friggin' label, hunting for the ones that are ADA approved (it used to be that they all were and I used to wonder why people made such a big deal of checking for that label...well, watch out, because a lot of the new ones with odd flavors, etc., aren't ADA approved), comparing prices and sizes? Just pick one based on a commercial or shiny label? Heck no!

 

[Danger]

Once I find a brand that I like (usually really inexpensive no-name stuff that's as good as the national brands), I just stick with it. I'm immune to ads.

 

[Moonbear]

Once I find a brand that I like (usually really inexpensive no-name stuff that's as good as the national brands), I just stick with it. I'm immune to ads.

I can hardly find my "regular" toothpaste amidst the whole aisle of toothpastes now! Part of the problem I run into is that I keep moving, so the generic brands are different from store to store and region to region. I can't just find one of those and stick with it (I've also run into times when the generic brand wasn't cheaper than the name brand...it was just more diluted so actually cost more, or when it was cheaper to buy small bottles or individual items rather than the bulk pack).

Then again, I'm still trying to figure out the craziness behind the grocery store's layout here. I hunted all over for breadcrumbs last week, and finally found them next to the bread. To me, breadcrumbs are a baking need and should be in the aisle with flour, spices and cooking oil. Then, they have an "ethnic foods" aisle, which includes Italian, and they put all the canned tomatoes in that aisle along with pasta...last I checked, canned tomatoes were a canned vegetable, and weren't exclusively consumed by Italians. And I think pasta and rice belong together, not separated by ethnicity. Oh, and the real fun one is that ethnic aisle has a "Mexican" food section (which is not just Mexican...the store manager needs a lesson on world cultures I think), and they put some of the canned beans there...the ones with Spanish-sounding brand names...and some of them in the canned vegetable aisle. Grrr. Yet, the beans with the Italian-sounding brand name were in the canned vegetable aisle, not the Italian foods section. Oh, and then the processed cheeses are over in the dairy case (near the yogurt and butter) all the way on the far side of the store, while the fancy, good cheeses (and some not-so-fancy ones...don't ask me, I'm not sure what divides them from the other cheeses) are in a case on the complete other side of the store near the produce and meats. I understand the reasoning of putting dairy at one end and produce and meats at the other...it forces the shopper to walk through the rest of the store when they run in for staple items in the hopes they'll buy something else, but why divide cheese between two ends of the store? It's either dairy or it isn't.

I'm not sure advertising works as well when grocery shopping is a scavenger-hunt type experience. Product placement might be a bigger issue, though if that brand of beans that's in the ethnic food aisle thinks they'll do better there, they're sure missing out on a lot of buyers who don't even look in that aisle (I don't think of looking in an ethnic food aisle for beans, I think of looking there for ingredients almost exclusively used for cooking for that particular ethnicity, though even then, I'd prefer if they just put those in the proper aisles, such as soy sauce or tahini in the aisle with the other sauces). And of course we all know that if you want a type of breakfast cereal that isn't sugar-laden with cartoon characters on the box and prizes inside, you have to look at the top shelf.

 

[DaveC426913]

Once I find a brand that I like (usually really inexpensive no-name stuff that's as good as the national brands), I just stick with it. I'm immune to ads.

Yup. Brand loyalty is why they compete so hard. Once a brand is chosen, it's almost impossible to get someone to change.

But don't fool yourself into thinking you're immune. People are always having to buy things they haven't bought in a while. That's the moment they're waiting for.

 

[DaveC426913]

I understand the reasoning of putting dairy at one end and produce and meats at the other...it forces the shopper to walk through the rest of the store...

Actually, I'm fairly sure that the overriding reason is because Jewish law prohibits putting meat and dairy near each other.

 

[Danger]

last I checked, canned tomatoes were a canned vegetable

And you're a biologist, you say?

Although the idiots in your Supreme Court ruled it a vegetable for taxation purposes...

 

[DaveC426913]

And you're a biologist, you say?
Although the idiots in your Supreme Court ruled it a vegetable for taxation purposes...

 

[Moonbear]

Actually, I'm fairly sure that the overriding reason is because Jewish law prohibits putting meat and dairy near each other.

I don't think that's the case. In the grocery store I currently shop at, the "fancy" cheeses are right next to the meats (and the cooked sausages...those kind you put out with cheese as an appetizer), and in previous stores, the packaged cheeses were right next to the packaged cold-cuts. There's nothing that I know of in Jewish law that prohibits them being close to each other, they just aren't allowed to touch, and are definitely not allowed to be cooked or consumed together. You can still have meat and dairy in the same fridge. As far as I know, they really do put the milk and bread in a location that makes you walk through the rest of the store to get to it.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't think that's the case. In the grocery store I currently shop at, the "fancy" cheeses are right next to the meats (and the cooked sausages...those kind you put out with cheese as an appetizer), and in previous stores, the packaged cheeses were right next to the packaged cold-cuts. There's nothing that I know of in Jewish law that prohibits them being close to each other, they just aren't allowed to touch, and are definitely not allowed to be cooked or consumed together. You can still have meat and dairy in the same fridge. As far as I know, they really do put the milk and bread in a location that makes you walk through the rest of the store to get to it.

Yeah, you might be right - my case is weak.