It is nothing new to say that our times are characterized by excessive communication, information and consumption. Digital transformation has indeed fostered an exponential expansion of communication. Nonetheless, in many instances communication has just become an accelerated exchange of information, a process of de-personalized communication by which we have somehow lost the sense of the other and the readiness to listen.
In all this excess we claim that lies easily become truth, truths are vanished, and there seems to be a desire to assimilate everything at the same speed that information is exchanged, thereby reducing our capacity to reflect, to generate insights and experiences to mere illusory exchanges offered by social media -as an example. Disorientation is also quickly created, often resulting in an overflow of passion and aggression based mainly on confusion. Ignorance cannot only be caused by a lack of information, but also by an overload of it.
This hyper-communication appears to allow us to be more interconnected, but this interconnection not always brings an understanding of or closeness to the other; in some, or perhaps in many cases the result is exactly the opposite.
When we receive data concerning how things work or happen, we usually develop a parallel process trying to interpret whatever we are receiving; in a way we construct a kind of map. However, between the moment of receiving information and interpreting it, we tend to lose something . . . we have a tendency to exaggerate or miss something: a gap is created constantly.
Tremendous complexities can be generated through this process, if we also consider that it is usually combined with the distrustful quality of judgement that goes on at the level of interpretation. And one of the problems with hyper-communication or dealing with an overload of information seems to be that those gaps easily become more pronounced.
So we usually do not see things as they are, but as we perceive them, if we happen to perceive anything. We interpret the world according to some particular language or approach and color it with our own styles and ways of looking at things. When we cling to our own perceptions or claim these are the way things are, we widen our blind spots; we reduce our ability to perceive sharply, to gain clarity.
In order to perceive sharply, to get some aerial point of view, we need to open our mind to something slightly more than we have already been told. We need to open and consider the particular point of view of the other and give some time to reflect, to listen and try to generate an understanding of other angles. There is always the possibility to perceive without any conditions. There is always the possibility to reduce, or at least try to reduce our blind spots. . .