The information age has spawned a great asset to society: the Internet. Anyone’s thoughts are readily available to you at any time. Case in point, whether you’re reading this piece in The Triangle or on a blog, my thoughts were not that hard to come by. But when does all of this information become too much? When do too many thoughts and opinions begin to greatly influence or even corrupt our decision-making? Well, it depends on what kind of person you are. I’d like to think of myself as an independent-minded, opinionated and well-informed individual, but many of my peers seem either to hide their opinions or have none at all. In other words, they seem as if they, to put it bluntly, don’t think. Not to say that they don’t have anything rattling around up there, but their lives and their problems seem to be their only concern. When it comes to large issues that seem like they scream to be thought about and analyzed, they don’t bother. Particularly about things going on in our society right now, such as the presidential race, the economic predicament we’ve found ourselves in and other social issues that will or already are having an effect on the general populous. But, while everyone is in a panic, so many of my peers seem pleasantly aloof.

This brings me to my point; maybe thinking has become the problem. Maybe these people that appear detached, misinformed or even dim have mastered the technique of something I’d like to call selective thinking: they only think about what affects them immediately and will affect them and only them. You may think I’m just using a lot of words to explain selfishness, but what they actually may be doing, whether it be intentional or not, is weeding out the BS to make their lives a little simpler. While I’m toiling away overcomplicating things and trying to make sense of the world around me, they’re complacent in their own little bubbles and will only try to fix their own problems, and sometimes not even that.

Maybe those of us who are trying to absorb and, more importantly, understand the things that we learn and their application in the “real world” and are very quick to dismiss things that we don’t deem worthy, we end up missing the big picture. While I feel well-informed and hip, I find myself being stressed and getting angry very easily about many things that don’t have anything directly to do with me. Now, that’s just the kind of person I am, hot-blooded and opinionated, but my friends who show they know nothing other than what they hear other people talk about in short detail–like global warming, the war or the financial crisis–everything else to them is lollypops and sunshine.

A perfect example of this theory is the presidential election; mostly everyone has an opinion about it. Whether it is left or right or in the middle or nowhere at all, for the most part everyone has something to say. But how are the people who don’t know a Palin from a Pinto formulating opinions, especially with all of this information flying around? It may be as simple as they just don’t care, which is a problem in itself. Or, there could just be too much information.

For example, you think you like one candidate, or maybe you don’t really believe in democracy. Then you’re watching one of the news networks or reading a blog and someone says something that clicks. But wait–Credible News Source A reports on something that completely contradicts the piece of information that you found so moving. What to do? This is our paradox; thinking about other people’s thoughts has caused us to second-guess our own thoughts. This is a simple marketing concept: put too many options on the shelf, people won’t buy. But this isn’t a can of tuna we’re talking about; we’re essentially deciding our future.

Through observation and…thought, I’ve found that the only cure for being unsure is confidence. My friends who have trouble formulating opinions about these big social issues…they’re just not confident enough in their knowledge of the situation to make a decision. Being unsure is fine, and taking risks is part of life; but how calculated do you want your risks to be? Do you want to take a stab in the dark or bet on black (in roulette, a supposed sure thing)? Thinking isn’t bad, but don’t let too many thoughts cloud your thought process. If we ever do find ourselves over-thinking or over-analyzing, maybe we should take a page from our dim friends’ book and think selectively to make our lives easier.

Or not. It was just a thought