The Era of TMI

Caleb Karuga once said, “We are not meant to have access to this much information”. Another author said, “Ignorance is bliss”. A nice meme had this written on its face, “Know yourself. Everything else is on Google”.

We live in the age of information. Getting to this age was inevitable. All roads led to this future.

Those with information have always held an edge over their clueless neighbours. Over time, those who could share and pass their knowledge efficiently wrote the future. This has its advantages.

But, there is a dark side.

We have gigabytes and terabytes of knowledge in our faces all the time. It becomes very easy to rationalise, if I can access it - “I deserve it, I should do something with it”.

Personal Stories

A recent occurrence is the rise of personal stories. We have unfettered access to people’s hero’s journeys. This I am guilty of perpetuating.

“I started farming. I failed twice. Now, I am doing it. If I can do it, so can you”.

These stories, we tailor them to the public narrative we want to encourage. We also design them to inspire. And they inspire. There is nothing to inspire action than to listen to another’s hero story.

But there is a dark side.

The only commonality between the writer and the reader is that we both use social media. Apart from that, we have little in common. I have strengths and weaknesses that you cannot imagine.

However, my story is on your screen; accessible to you.

You think,

“This must be for me”.

And you do that with 20 or 30 other people. At some point, you have to feel you are getting pulled in 30 different directions. ?

Folklores and Lessons

There is an innate desire to find a lesson in the stories we hear. This might explain why the old folklore had a [comprehensible] lesson at the end of each story. Just the thought of a story without a lesson gives me serious anxiety. [Brrrrr].

From other's stories, we seek a lesson. A key learning. That would work if we did this with one person, whose story we want to live.

But no. We have access to thousands of stories.

What is my point?

Every day we are inundated with information; some of which we are not qualified for. Some of which we have no business accessing.

I used to think that the phrase

“My people perish because of lack of knowledge” suggested that we should all go out and seek more information.

And that,

“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom”, encouraged Christians to mindless belief. Literally, “Fear me, and I will give you wisdom” – that sounds like something a dictator would say.

However, perhaps it means, “Fear me and I will structure your knowledge”. Go out and seek information, but let me [God] give you a frame of reference.

It is easy to get lost in knowledge. Perhaps, that is why we are a generation of very anxious people. Most of us are lost in short videos, newsletters, long videos and pictures.

As we enter December and prepare for a new year, perhaps one thing I can encourage you is to get re-acquainted with your story. To dig in and painfully separate your story from the story of others. This reminds me of that scene in Spiderman 3, where Peter is separating himself from the black spider.

It is hard. And you probably need a little help.

But doable.

This is what I am reflecting on these few weeks to the end of the year – what is my story? What part of other’s stories have crept in on my story? ?

Happy Holidays. ?