There is a lot of anxiety about information overload, corporate control of the news and the suffocating glut of commercial propaganda flooding the expanding global technological infrastructure. People seem to feel they are coping for the time being, but fear they will be overwhelmed in the near future, as networks increase the saturation of mediated images, sounds, stories&√Ǭ£45;-the plethora of calculated manipulations.The I-Bomb exploded sometime in the early 1990’s, when computer networks attained a certain critical speed and scale, flipping the gates wide open to unleash a torrent of blinding, deafening electric code&√Ǭ£45;-a white-hot, thunderous explosion of advertising, entertainment, voice and data. We must now negotiate a solid state of continuous, relentless input. We are the organic components of an integrated global data and information system.This media pressure now keeps us afloat, even as it blows right through us at the speed of light. Our existence, who we think we are and how other people see us, is defined by the kind of shadow we cast. We are exposed by the increasingly violent light of the I-Bomb. Like the moth and the flame, we can’t resist this light. This fatal attraction to media keeps us coming back for more. We are gluttons for massive doses of symbolic code. When we close our

eyes or turn off our info-appliances, we still must mull over the afterimages, the disembodied voices, the imprinted sonic rhythms. We are eternally plugged in. Our equilibrium is skewed, buffeted by the force of the message storm.While it is probably wise to wear welding goggles and earplugs in the face of this assault, on the contrary huge numbers of individuals are wiring their homes with high speed network connections, buying industrial-strength information processors, setting up home theaters with high definition screens and surround sound, pointing satellite

dishes towards the heavens, taking cell phones to bed with them at night. The symptoms of information addiction are not very subtle.Most believe that survival depends on a managed exposure to information overload. If one survives an exposure to excessive levels of media information, one develops a strong sense of media literacy. This is bit like developing a tolerance to an influenza virus by first falling ill, then recovering. By developing an immunity the hard way…Interactivity is fundamental to becoming media literate, and is highly recommended for counteracting the numbing effects of the I-Bomb. Literacy is not just the ability to sort out and digest media information, it is also learning how and when to author messages, so one can spew one’s own messages back into the face of the torrent, and actually alter the nature of the immediate media environment. The danger with interactivity is that such individual message sources are often targeted for response by highly focused, industrial-strength, corporate media campaigns. Filters and shields are absolutely necessary, especially for those choosing to refine their media literacy rapidly through interactivity.