It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.
A great talk by Clay Shirky at Web 2.0 Expo that nicely encapsulates a lot of what we think around here.
Information overload isn’t new or evolving, really (just getting more noisy with new sources for some). It’s just “what we swim in”, to quote Mr. Shirky.
To some of us who had to live, work, and get educated before these here internets became ubiquitous, stumbling a bit while getting used to this “always on” world isn’t that surprising.
For the upcoming generation who won’t have lived any other way, it won’t be a big deal. Especially since their brains will be trained to deal with an excess of input as a matter of course, and they’ll be used to having tools for information management seamlessly integrated into their lifestreams. (Oh yeah, there’s the other generational difference — they very much live outloud, all over the place — something that can horrify those of us old school types who still care about what other people think.)
To borrow a phrase from Hugh MacLeod, our secret, evil plan around here (not really, actually we’re very nice, and pretty transparent) is to ensure that that upcoming generation never knows information management tools (especially RSS-related) that don’t have social engagement filtering built right in. 