Aired Nov 19, 2025

Every generation today is trying to make sense of a world that never stops pinging.
Too many messages, too many opinions, too many notifications — and somehow, too little connection.

In this Okay Boomer episode, we sit down with communication scholar Craig Mattson to talk about what he calls digital overwhelm — and how our different generations try (and often fail) to navigate it.

Mattson, a professor of communication and author of Digital Overwhelm: A Mid-Career Guide to Coping at Work, studies how people communicate across divides — generational, digital, and emotional.
Together, he and David explore what it means to stay human in an age where every conversation competes with a screen.

Craig Mattson is a professor of communication and the author of Digital Overwhelm: A Mid-Career Guide to Coping at Work. His research explores communication across generations, digital environments, and organizational life — helping people find meaning and connection in a noisy world.

Links

Digital Overwhelm (digitaloverwhelm.com)

Craig Mattson (Calvin University)

The Mode/Switch with Craig Mattson Substack