Nevermind information overload, we live in an age of conversation overload

I can deal with information overload - if I didn't get to read that special article everyone is sharing then no big deal. But conversation overload is an entirely different thing.

By Tom Foremski

18 Jul 2011

As a journalist I have trouble keeping up with the conversations in my email, yet today I have conversations everywhere and in new places. There's email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, my two blogs, then there are SMS messages, voicemail (which I never check) and the latest is: Google+.

The problem with conversations is that they are more important than not reading that great article... Conversations are with people that I work with, that I meet at conferences and events, potential business partners, friends, family, readers, supporters, and more. I want these conversations because I respect these people.

But I don't want it to seem that I'm ignoring people or that I'm arrogant in some way, but I have to admit this - I can't keep up! And I bet many others can't keep up too.

This is a big problem because some people will try to maintain all their conversations, because they have jobs in professions such as PR where they have to be always on, always responsive, always engaged. Now they have to do this across a fragmented landscape of social networks and messaging platforms.

Read the full article on www.memeburn.com.

About the author

Tom Foremski is a contributor on [[www.memeburn.com]].