First off I would like to say that I am not an experienced blogger so sorry in advance if this drags on a bit!
To be honest when I first looked at this article just briefly a few days ago and just looked over the title and caption I instantly thought "hmm it is about twitter I don't have a twitter account so I am probably safe from whatever this article says twitter does to you". However, after thoroughly reading it over today I have to admit that I am not safe from information overload due to technology, in fact I suffered from this exact problem a few days ago.
I am planning a trip to Vancouver in early March and decided I should start looking into hotel options this weekend which seemed like a simple enough task but I was shocked when I just started my Internet search. As soon as I typed it into Google I was bombarded with ads and reviews from all different websites. It took a few minutes but I finally picked the website I would use to start my search. From there things only got worse! There were so many categories and ratings that I would be looking at information on one hotel and three more would be advertised on the bottom page just leading me to them. I had to decided what I was interested in. What part of town did I want to stay in, did I want a pool or rec, free WiFi or flat screen TV, a modern or condo style, skyscraper or an inn. I was having, like the article mentioned, a total failure to decide something that wasn't even that complicated but due to so many options I couldn't pick one.
Once i finally decided on one I liked there was four different room options with different styles and sizes and prices for each. To save you from anymore of my frustration I ended up texting my mom and have her pick one for me that she already knew was good.
I guess the moral of my blog is this, don't use Google to try and pick a hotel in Vancouver and something I assumed I was safe from actually turned out to be more relevant to myself then I thought. Because reflecting back this topic it is not the only time something like the hotel fiasco has happened. Technology is such a big part of our lives, or at least mine, that it seems like a lot of my decisions lately, or you could say lack of decisions, were due to it. As to the categories of “sufficers” and “maximizers” I would say I fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. At times, like mentioned up above, I get very overwhelmed. But on the other hand I am able to pick somethings quickly, and not regret my decision later on. I mean hey I was able to create this blog post without changing the font too many times!
I can relate to your situation about finding a hotel online. I didn't think about how this article might relate to online shopping, but I now that I think about it, it is probably one of the things that causes the most information overload! Sometimes making an important purchase really stresses me out because there are so many options and often it is hard to choose what will be the best. I think it is natural to want to do research before making a decision, but it is really difficult to know when you've done enough!
ReplyDeleteI complete agree. Finding that balance between an appropriate amount of research and too much is essential to not getting information overload!
ReplyDeleteI am going through the same kind of information overload when it comes to travel. I have been looking for over four months at flights to Johannesburg. I have looked at all the different price, company, layover, seating, class, food options and more. Holy Guacamole. It is way too much information and almost all of it is unnecessary. There is even the 'percentage the flight is on time'! Finally I broke down and called a travel agent for a quote. She told me a price that was a couple of hundred dollars over a ticket I could find. Lesson learned. Yes the information is overwhelming, but there are instances where if can save you a great deal of money. However, maybe when you add in the time I spent looking at flights, it would have been cheaper to just go with the travel agent in the beginning!
ReplyDeleteI totally understand. Planning any sort of trip can send people into information overload. Picking a hotel, flight, and choosing what activities out of the hundreds of things possible to do can be intense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your position, sometimes we try and figure something out but get overloaded with a ton of options. All you wanted to do was look up some hotel options and instead you got overloaded with a ton of ads that made your choice alot harder.
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