Information is addicting. Plain and simple. Those NBC commercials titled, “The More You Know” always spark an internal curiosity in me. Watching those brief messages on the weekend from NBC personalities is like taking a swig of Knowledgeade. 

I’m ready to go Mr. Lauer!

Aside from these brief, uplifting messages are a myriad of other outlets before us that present nearly unlimited opportunities for discovery and insight. The access to information on a daily basis is astonishing in the 21st century. It’s even borderline mesmerizing considering the world once existed and functioned well before a printing press was invented, let alone the pre-Internet era. Consider this: a phone is actually a computer first, with its calling capabilities down to probably third or fourth on the priority list of preferred functionality.

We all know it’s true. And if you think that’s an exaggeration, perhaps you are forgetting about the camera, your wide array of cool apps and your digital music player. Plus, don’t neglect the GPS (seriously, don’t neglect it).

Even the term “iCloud” has altered our perspective of the sky above us. No longer do we glance up into the open sky and blankly ponder the open space with imaginative daydreams. Instead, we look up and visualize data points and infinite transfers of structured and random information moving from Point A to Point B with a diagonal cut to Point S.

Is this a good evolutionary trait?

There are some nights when I look forward to relaxing and taking a break from writing papers and participating in the daily grind. Laying comfortably on a couch with a favorite show playing on the television in front of me, the urge becomes too overwhelming. I instantly (while simultaneously regretting it) open up my MacBook Pro that was closed and start searching for witty articles by a specific author or funny interview clips from a talk show.

On the one hand, it’s good that we are a people that is anxious and excited to seek and find new bits of information. Expanding our horizons should be viewed as a positive characteristic.

Still though, is it really positive that we’ve developed a never-ending quest for knowledge (traditional and non-traditional alike) that prevents us from taking necessary mental breaks?

On the knowledge front, we’ve all moved to the beach with a beautiful ocean view. Everyday, we look out into the vast blue, shimmering openness with the ambition to learn something new, knowing full well that complete knowledge is impossible. We take the dive regardless. On Wednesday, it’s waves hitting a bunch of rocks we see far to the right that stirs our inquisitiveness. On Thursday morning, we see surfers, which makes us want to learn about the history of surfing. Friday evening shows us fun being enjoyed on the boardwalk. Something clicks in our minds that we find too irresistible not to explore.

The rocks, surfers and people on a boardwalk represents something different to each of us. Regardless, these are topics we now find ourselves searching about…virtually nonstop.

While we may be exhausted, we are still seeing things we may never be able to or think to see again.

It’s a classic dilemma.

Speaking of classic…