We are being bombarded with non-stop information

This week's INM Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane
Trains travelling from provincial centres to Dublin on Bank Holiday Monday afternoons are usually crowded.

On Easter Monday I happened to be on one such train.

There was the usual noise and clamour as people got on and off. But once it left Mallow it went non-stop to Dublin Heuston. Within minutes of leaving Mallow it dawned on me how silent the space was.

Why the silence? I looked about. Most of them had their headphones on and were watching and listening to their smart phones and tablets.

It certainly is a great way to while-away travelling time. I noticed the young man in the seat in front of me was watching a film.

But it was the deadly silence on the train that caught my imagination.

I have mentioned it here before in this column how people out and about wearing headphones can so easily be oblivious to the world about them. A passing salutation gets no response as they are closed off from their surroundings.

Is that a good idea?

We are allowing ourselves to be bombarded with non-stop information. Not that long ago we turned on our televisions or radios for the six and nine o'clock news. It's now a matter of 'rolling news'. We always manage to create new slick words to give meaning to new phenomena. There's nothing wrong with that.

But might there be too much 'sound' in our lives? Is there now a minute in the day when we are not being bombarded by sound and visuals coming at us from every angle?

It's worth recalling George Eliot's sentiment: "Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

These days we sure do need good filters.

What time have we left to be with our own thoughts? Or what chances have we to work things out for ourselves?

And then how tempting it is to believe without questioning what we see and read on social media. We see or hear someone on social media and are so easily captivated by them. I once heard a colleague laugh at the idea how we all rushed to the television to watch another colleague appear on the news one evening. He quipped: "Why the fuss to see him on the screen when we never bother listening to him when he is sitting in our midst?"

There is some sort of allurement about screens and speakers that seem to fascinate us. And in the meantime it is so easy for us to miss what is right in front of us.

It would be an unwise person who would dismiss all that has happened in technology in the last 20/30 years but there is a place and a time for everything.

We are now in the early days of nature springing into life. So much is unfolding in front of our eyes and ears. To see it happening in real life surely makes more sense than watching and listening to it on the screen.

On Easter Tuesday Brendan O'Connor, who was substituting on RTE's Ryan Turbidy Show, interviewed a young mother, who was stressing how important it is to monitor young children's use of electronic media. Maybe before we monitor what our children are doing we might take stock of how we are using social media. Young children copy their peers and parents too.

It is often baffling to see people drive through beautiful countryside, briefly stopping to take a picture or video and then jump back into the car and drive off.

The real thing is always better.