Glenn wakes to find himself tied to his bedposts. He unties himself, and observes the marks left on his wrists. He then notices the bed empty. Simultaneously, a radio program in the background talks about a hit play amongst the homosexual community; ‘Climax!’, which Glenn is starring in. The interviewer asks him about his personal life and he explains that he doesn’t believe in love and he just enjoys sleeping around.
At the apartment of Michael, his close friend, Glenn passes Michael a pair of tickets. Michael thanks him then asks how his date went the night before. Glenn laughs and gives a pointed look at Michael, replying that he can’t even remember the guy’s name and only remembers that they took turns being tied up. Michael acknowledges Glenn’s beliefs and politely disagrees, ending off saying that he’s started seriously dating another guy; Alden.
Tense silence passes before Glenn excuses himself to use the bathroom.
The doorbell rings and Michael answers, finding Alden there in a long sleeved top, ready to go with Michael to see the play that night. Michael calls out to Glenn, to hurry because he wants to see ‘Climax!’ Glenn walks towards them whilst replying that ‘Climax!’ can’t happen without him; the lead character. Introductions are shared and when they shake hands, the sleeve on Alden’s top rides up to reveal a mark on his wrists, similar to that of Glenn’s. Glenn notices it and quickly glances away. He pauses before congratulating Michael.
Summary
- Information overload likened to sensory overload
- “When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation, or a novelty-loaded context… his predictive accuracy plummets. He can no longer make the reasonably correct assessments on which rational behavior is dependent.”
- Large amounts of information confuse people, which has lead to marketing decisions to present simplified information.
- In the modern day context, information is everywhere and yet, we handle it well.
- In fact, far from fearing the amount of information available, it has been observed at a social level that people feel they do not receive all the information they need.
- Thus, technology has advanced in a direction to allow us to sift through information better.
Research
- I decided to look carefully into sensory overload and the actual reality of the predictions around it.
- Commonly an issue with those suffering from mental disabilities that affect their ability to process information. Examples of such disabilities include Aspergers and autism.
- Usually a result of multiple senses taking in a lot of data for the brain to process
- Possible symptom of stress and depression
- Constantly being in environments that overwhelm an individual’s senses may desensitize those senses.
Critique
I think that there is merit to the predictions of the consequences of information overload but I feel that the development of the database structure of information has really aided our ability to deal with the copious amounts of information available on the internet.
Interestingly, I think the idea of sensory and information overload contributes to stylistic choices in film.
With films using lots of special effects, lighting, fast-rhythm montage, background music in the midst of dialogue, we find that silence/a,ambiguity becomes a much stronger tool than in the past when such technologies did not exist and the audience did not need to consider these as conscious choices by the director.
Similarly with plot, some of the best plots for films are those that are ambiguous for the audience to think about, because we are used to plotlines where cause and effect is always clear.
