EDITORIAL

Information Overload

Posted

In today’s society, we have access to many sources of information, such as television, radio, internet, social media and many different types of printed media. There are even software programs on cell phones and other electronic devices that are voice activated to answer all your questions, such as Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa.

Yet, with all this easy access to information, society has become lazy in its ability to critically think and solve problems, because we have come to rely on all of this technology. This is a result of being constantly overloaded with news, sports, hobbies, gossip and other various genre of non-essential information. With all this ‘noise,’ society is losing the ability to sit quietly and hear God speaking to them. Since the information that we search for is immediately available, we are instantly gratified and it feeds our need to have everything at our fingertips.

Another side effect of information overload is a growing sense of worry among people living in the world. They worry about the economy, President Trump, radical Islam, immigration and various other crises. Since we are losing the ability to sit still and be quiet with God, we are becoming unable to filter out all of the information ‘noise.’

Perhaps during Lent we can heed St. Padre Pio’s advice, “Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer. Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart.”