A million times, this:
You hear a lot of talk about information overload, but I don't feel the amount of information is the problem. For me, the problem comes in with the emotional investment demanded by real-time, and the ultimate toll it can take on your productivity, or just general happiness and well-being. You can see this play out in everything from expectations that you should respond to emails, all the way to social network memes getting your attention when it comes to the election, or for me personally, the concerns around security and privacy using technology.
Source: Working To Avoid The Drowning Effects Of Real Time ·
I've definitely been feeling this fatigue more lately. Describing it as a "real-time toll" is a good way to look at it. It's definitely not information overload - it's sensory and emotional overload as a result of a flood of realtime demands on attention and connection.
I am actively reducing the number of real-time platforms/connections/whatevers that I pay attention to, and am actively trying to do as much as I can on my own schedule. RSS is on my schedule. Checking and responding to email is on my schedule. Twitter/Facebook/etc are more real-time environments, so I'm reducing the amount of time I spend there.
Update: the Related Posts feature pulled up this post from 2008. "Real-time toll" is a perfect way to describe what I was getting at back then:
Every time I read an update by someone that I care about, I think about that person – if only for a second – and my sense of connection is strengthened.