Writing about Life in the digital age

We like to know what’s going on. Eighty-seven percent of respondents to a December 2014 Pew Internet and American Life survey said that the internet and mobile phones help them learn new things, and 72% like having access to so much information.

But the information onslaught comes at a price, experts say. Information overload—trying to take in and respond to too much information—can cause forgetfulness, fatigue, and difficulty with focus, says psychologist and attention expert Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD, author of Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload.

"We can listen to all of these motivational gurus who tell us we have unlimited potential, but the brain is a physical structure. It runs on biochemicals called neurotransmitters," she says. When those neurotransmitters are depleted because we overextend them, we run out of fuel.