Information overload

[Lencoboy]

Tonight my dad was watching the 'traditional' 6pm news bulletin on BBC 1 rather than the BBC News channel, which is his usual 'go-to' choice of TV news, and I couldn't help thinking this is a bit more laid back, despite it still technically communicating the same articles to us as the main BBC News channel, and of course being part of the very same organisation.

For me, on the BBC 1 bulletins, it's the lack of detailed on-screen text that makes for more comfortable viewing. The only captions that tend to appear on-screen are really the names and roles of the interviewees, and sometimes the name of the place being reported from.

Unlike on the BBC News channel, which seems to have endless on-screen text, which I personally find distracting and too 'in-yer-face', especially when I am trying to make sense of each individual topic being communicated to us by the presenters, but having the text at the bottom of the screen reporting each headline forever changing every few seconds amounts to information overload as far as I am concerned. Sky News also does the same thing.

Does anyone else have difficulty with things like that?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Stuff like this used to be triggering for me. My breakdown was all about overload at work.

It's like news sites and how they tempt you into reading other articles. Modern life wants us to race through it and out the other end.

[Lencoboy]

Stuff like this used to be triggering for me. My breakdown was all about overload at work.

It's like news sites and how they tempt you into reading other articles. Modern life wants us to race through it and out the other end.

It does seem to be about 'pushing everything to the max' these days.

And it's not just TV news and on-screen text in general, it's also endless OTT background music, even on documentaries, with the overall soundtrack often compressed to hell, which can lead to auditory fatigue, which is a typical example of the so-called 'loudness war'.

Sadly, most producers (both music and TV) seem to assume it's what the vast majority of the population want nowadays, even if they don't necessarily agree with it themselves, which I personally regard as lazy production ethics and of course, the proverbial 'keeping up with the Joneses'.

Quite literally, less is often more.

[Dexter James]

Dont watch the news period it wont change your life you can do that yourself , I used to all ways watch the news its very negative and does people with mental health issues no good at all.

[Lencoboy]

Dont watch the news period it wont change your life you can do that yourself , I used to all ways watch the news its very negative and does people with mental health issues no good at all.

I do try not to watch, read or listen to the news whenever and wherever possible. It's just that in some instances it's virtually impossible to escape it, such as public places that have either the BBC or Sky News channels on large screens throughout, or if in someone else's car or house it comes on the radio or TV, which I have no right whatsoever to dictate.

It's not just the news, it's many other things like a lot of modern pop songs whose vocals are often autotuned to death and films/dramas that have to rely on excessive violence and bad language every other word which really does my head in.

For the record, I'm no prude in the grand scheme of things and I have heard endless F and C-bombs being dropped on numerous occasions throughout my lifetime and never even batted an eyelid at the time, but now it's got to the point where I just cannot stand those words anymore.

And not necessarily the actual meanings of both words, which I personally couldn't care less about, but more the aggressive and insulting nature of said words, and the fact that they have become so trite, hackneyed and overused over the past 30-odd years or so.

I know they often say 'art reflects reality', but for me, art and entertainment is some kind of escape from the stresses and strains of the real world, especially when in the comfort of our own homes. And that's why I think the 9 pm watershed on TV is still a fair and balanced arrangement for us all.

[Dexter James]

I know they often say 'art reflects reality', but for me, art and entertainment is some kind of escape from the stresses and strains of the real world, especially when in the comfort of our own homes. And that's why I think the 9 pm watershed on TV is still a fair and balanced arrangement for us all.

Good to hear your getting fed up with the way things are sadly a lot of things are negative, Art nature and good entertainment is a very good way of relaxing your self i like being outside a lot as well walking by the river or in the forest its very good helps clear the mind

[NoraB]

Information overload sums up life for me, from the 80s onwards.

Take me back to the 70s (power cuts 'n' all) where Ronco and Pong was as exciting as it got in our house!

[ankietyjoe]

I don't watch the news, there's no point to it.

I don't think anybody really needs to be 'informed'. What did people do before radio and TV (really not that long ago)? They reacted to situations as they happened, and didn't worry about stuff that was happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. Even if something on the news may eventually impact your life, knowing about it is still highly unlikely to really matter until it happens.

Combine this with the way news is delivered these days, which started in the late 80s I think, and it's even more reason to avoid it altogether.

[Lencoboy]

Information overload sums up life for me, from the 80s onwards.

Take me back to the 70s (power cuts 'n' all) where Ronco and Pong was as exciting as it got in our house!

Ronco was a record label whose foremost products were cheap compilation LPs, but I have learned that the same brand also offered other, often quirky, non-music-related household items.

Wasn't Pong some kind of tennis-based video game?

Some of the Argos catalogues from back then make for interesting viewing.

There's a site that's part of issuu.com that shows all the Argos catalogues from the very first in 73 or 74 up until (I think) the late 90s.

[Lencoboy]

I don't watch the news, there's no point to it.

I don't think anybody really needs to be 'informed'. What did people do before radio and TV (really not that long ago)? They reacted to situations as they happened, and didn't worry about stuff that was happening hundreds or thousands of miles away. Even if something on the news may eventually impact your life, knowing about it is still highly unlikely to really matter until it happens.

Combine this with the way news is delivered these days, which started in the late 80s I think, and it's even more reason to avoid it altogether.

I agree with you wholeheartedly AJ, especially your last paragraph.

Back in 1989 the BBC Breakfast News, BBC 6 o' clock News, Midlands Today, BBC 9 o' clock News, ITN News at Ten, were all the stuff of auditory and visual torture for me. Not just the headlines they were communicating to us during each bulletin, but the on-screen captions, especially the BBC 6 o' clock News, that was stylised 'SIX' in its logo,
and Midlands Today having a weird- looking logo and having a cringeworthy looking italic font for the general text.

The theme tunes for all of them back then, especially the orchestral fanfare on BBC Breakfast News and ITN News at Ten were the stuff of intense misophonia for me. I used to leg it upstairs to bed whenever the latter came on, which was just as well if I was meant to be at school the following morning (I was 12 on my birthday in 89 BTW).

I wonder if before the 90s there were other 'pandemics' we were blissfully unaware of at the time?