In the book, Thinking with Type, Luhan said that we can only process one message at a time. If this is true, than receiving multiple messages at a time could leave us lacking a deep understanding of what we're receiving. If the message is imperative to our personal development, this can pose a serious problem.
Personally, the place i experience the most message overload is in college. the majors are demanding so the credit hours are heavy. I go from class to class, switching gears from one subject to the next with a new professor with a different perspective. It can be overloading to say the least. With heavy homework assignments and 6 different syllabuses that function independent of each other i find my main priority is looking for time to sleep,instead thinking in depth about what I've learned. There just isn't time!
This problem reminds me of a quote by VanGogh:
"If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things."
Classes seem to move quickly and by the end of the year i'm happy if i have a basic grasp of what i learned and can remember it a year later. This seems like basic information. On the other hand, I've studied and practiced oil painting and drawing for years and it's easy for me to make connections from those mediums to others because i have a deeper understanding of those areas. I've learned to see things through the lens of a painter, so to say.
Being able to see through a lens means you can see everything else in that light as well. This part of the subject is never grasped if we only have a basic understanding due to message overload.
So where does this leave us as future professionals? I can't say where i will be in two more years, but i wonder what would happen if i took classes slowed down so that I could learn more in depth. If there was more focus instead of fulfilling basic requirements, would we be more capable? The question is, what is more valuable: surface knowledge needed to keep up with changing times, or different lenses to interpret life?
I believe that the majority of students will agree with you and support your opinions that college in other words is "information overload". For the average student, they are taking about 12-15 credits per semester. That means four or five classes and keeping track of what was said in class as well as the physical documents you receive.
ReplyDeleteTheir can be quite the challenge as you get deeper into the semester and more importantly deeper into your college career. At Ball State, with the core curriculum, you are required to take courses outside your major that will help shape you into a well-rounded student along with your major studies. Having a majority of your focus on the courses that will go towards your major and ideally to your desireable profession, that all the information and facts that are thrown at you in your other courses, that it will seem a bit like information overload.
Having switched my maor to TCOM: Video Production a couple years ago, I feel a sense of similarity with you and your camera lens and me with the video camera lens. All the time I find myself just observing whats around and then I think to myself that I am doing a documentary or film on what is going on around me and I start to envision shots that I want and camera angles that will look cool for the given topic.
I think everyone needs a different lens in which to view life. Some peoples lens is simple the glasses they have on their head and thats how they see life. For others who go deeper, their lens may be through a truck windshield or it may be from behind a desk working up the corporate ladder. It can be anything, but everyone must realize that and explore what is around them and see how valuable it can be to add perception to situations. It could brighten your life.
I thought that your VanGogh quote was a great way to sum up this entire idea, and I think you are right! The best way to process information is one message at a time. Any more than that and it is the definition of message overload. This post reminded me of Plato's "Republic". In the Republic, Socrates and his group of friends decide to determine how to create the perfect "utopian" society. In the book, Socrates idea is that every man should only have one profession that he/she focuses on 100% of the time for their life. (Besides them being separated from their family and having ritualistic mating festivals.. those don't really apply.) But I think this idea makes sense. Socrates wanted this in his Utopia (Dystopia?) because of what Luhan says in her book. He believed this would create the best people with the best abilities in their focuses professions. Things you are good at, interested in, and want to learn.. you are going to remember those things. The hard part is coming to college where what you learn differs from professor to professor. I had a lesson in one class on how Prometheus was a Christ figure, and a semester later had a discussion in another class about how Prometheus was a Lucifer figure.. opposing the gods. How am I supposed to learn with complete differing views, and how am I supposed to remember that for years to come? College is undoubtedly a case of information overload, and just as Luhan says.. you can't absorb all of it. I've found that taking 12 credit hours a semester.. while its looked down upon as lazy, gives you the best taste of everything and the most time to learn it. Also, I think that while the message overload curves your ability to "learn" in an old fashioned sense, I think that it is great for coming up with your own ideas and opinions. If I hear 5 different "facts" 5 different ways in 5 different classes, then I can make my own decision and come up with my own ideas on how I personally feel about those subjects. I think its much easier to "learn" from a small town where everyone agrees on everything (from lawn care to religion to politics). However, I think having this message overload helps broaden our perspectives in many different ways and lets us form our own opinion. I think there are positives and negatives just like everything else, I just wish it were more differentiated based on individual learning styles in college.
ReplyDelete