Barbara J. Hamby

Information Overload

I’m bombarded by information these days: through the mail, by television, and endless emails. I spend much more time than I’d like sorting out what I’m actually interested in and recycling, muting, or deleting the rest. The delete key on my computer is not totally illegible, but the letters are getting pale.

Probably the most annoying interruption of the day, too many days lately, is some scammer on the phone with a line that begins, “Don’t be alarmed,” etc. etc. etc. I’m not alarmed; I’m totally disgusted and sick of trying to turn it off. The caller alleges you have some type of warranty that’s about to expire.

The last two times I answered that call, I stayed on the line to hear the entire tape and was advised that I could “Press 2” and not receive any further calls. We’ll see. I know it’s a scam because I read about it from some other information source. I wonder if you press “2” at the beginning, without listening to the whole tape, if it will cancel. I wonder if pressing “2” works at all, for that matter.

I have friends I really care about who send me stuff by email that I don’t care about. Once in a while, they send a gem, or actually communicate with me. So I sort through the chaff to get to the occasional goodie.

Other friends who share my values and interests send me important information and we meet in person from time to time to keep our relationships alive.

Having access to all my medical information on line is extremely helpful, as is being able to communicate by email with my doctors. My lab results are available almost immediately and my entire history is recorded also. I hope and trust that it is available only to me and to my doctors.

I especially appreciate having email contact with relatives who would never write letters, but will send messages through cyberspace.  Email correspondence with my best friend from high school over the years, until she died a while back, was a great way to stay connected. Those benefits override the nuisance of sorting through the spam.

It’s not clear whether sorting through piles of junk mail and newspaper inserts is worth the effort when I rarely find anything worthwhile. I did, however, get an ad in the mail this last week for a bank that’s offering good interest on short-term money, with a small minimum, that I might look into.

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