Information Indigestion: Why the Modern Mind Needs Better Filters, Not More Facts
The Buffet Is Open, and Everyone Has a Ladle
We are living in the grand buffet era of information. There are endless trays of opinions, studies, reels, headlines, experts, and wellness influencers.
The problem is no longer access.
The problem is that we are being served so much, so quickly, that many of us are intellectually bloated before we ever arrive at wisdom.
The World Health Organization calls this overabundance an infodemic: too much information, including false or misleading information, in digital and physical environments during disease “outbreaks.”1
The U.S. Surgeon General has warned that health misinformation spreads with unusual speed and scale through social media, search engines, and online retail spaces.2
In plain language: the modern reader is not merely looking for a needle in a haystack. The haystack now has sponsored content.
This is where my lens becomes useful: when clarity disappears, the first assumption should not be, “What is wrong with me?” A better question is, “What missing variable has not yet been considered?”
The Missing Variable Is Often Context
A woman reads one article saying coffee is a miracle beverage and another warning that caffeine is anxiety in a mug.
A parent sees one expert urge immune exposure and another urge greater protection.
A leader hears that artificial intelligence will save productivity, then reads that it will hollow out human judgment.
Each position arrives dressed in confidence.
Many people try to solve confusion by collecting more information. This feels responsible. It is also how one ends up with 47 browser tabs open and the emotional posture of a raccoon trapped in a recycling bin. More information does not automatically create better judgment. Sometimes it creates information indigestion.
(Continue reading “Information Indigestion: Why the Modern Mind Needs Better Filters, Not More Facts” on Substack, originally published 5/15/26.)
I’m Dr. Jill Fandrich, author of The Missing Variable. I write for readers who believe clarity isn’t found by avoiding complexity, but by learning how to look at it differently.
If you liked the real-world hidden variables in The Missing Variable, you’ll love what happens when those same ideas play out in fiction—the new Fusion Heart novel is live.
If your curiosity leans toward the imaginative edge of these ideas, your questions unfold in a different form inside The Realm Between Realms, where speculative fiction explores how choice, consequence, and consciousness might shape The Library of Unwritten Futures.
Until next time, keep the lens clean.