Free yourself from 'information overload'

When Manoush Zomorodi’s internet went out for a weekend, she found herself reading Shakespeare aloud to her partner—and realized how rarely she lets herself engage with a single, bounded source of information. That experience crystallized a problem many of us know: the feeling of being sick on information, like we’ve eaten too much candy. Zomorodi, host of Ted Radio Hour and author of a book on well-being in the digital age, joined Life Kit to explain what’s happening in our brains when we overload on information and how to stop it.

The ancient problem of infomania

The urge to cram more information into our heads is not new. Zomorodi points out that the word for it—infomania—goes back to the 13th century, when scholars worried about putting too much into their brains. But the modern version is uniquely exhausting because we’re not just reading books; we’re switching between screens constantly. This behavior has a name: multimedia tasking. It feels productive, but it isn’t. Every time you switch from email to Instagram to Slack to a news article, your brain burns glucose and oxygen. Over time, the CO₂ from that metabolic process builds up, and you start to feel foggy, fatigued, and unable to concentrate.