I am constantly bombarded by information communicated to me from an ever-increasing variety of sources, and I’m not the only one. Fifty years ago, modern communications equipment consisted mainly of telephones (as in land lines), radio, broadcast TV (ABC, NBC, and CBS), and yes, the telegraph. Calendars were made of paper and hung on walls where you wrote reminders on them with pens (sorry, no such thing as a stylus). The news was literally delivered once a day in the form of an actual newspaper and presented in summary during 30-minute TV and radio news casts shown daily at breakfast, dinner, and late night. People wrote letters with pen and paper and mailed them to each other. It took days to get a response.
As I write this, I have a laptop connected to three computer screens running two internet browsers and 17 open windows, tabs, sheets, apps, etc. I also have a smart phone that routinely notifies me of new texts, e-mails, “breaking news,” phone calls, voice messages, etc. In the background I can hear a TV set on some 24-hour cable news station. All are connected to a FiOS internet connection with a modest 50 Mbps download speed. My car just sent my phone a monthly status update (oil life, tire pressures, recent MPG, and even checked to make sure there are no outstanding recall notices). My friend’s car practically drives itself.