Coping With All the Yada, Yada

David Shenk’s book “Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut” depicts us as being info-bombarded due to the new technologies, an overload severe enough to cause social fragmentation, the decline of educational standards and even the breakdown of democracy.

Since 1971, Shenk writes, the number of advertising messages alone encountered by the average American has zoomed more than 500% to 3,000 a day. It’s boggling.

But no more so than “Seinfeld” smog.

Not that the polluting, smoky, relentless hype over its May 14 finale on NBC--hype of which I and The Times have been a part--is becoming lethal to America and the nation’s way of life. The danger of creeping “Seinfeld” is yet to equal the danger of creeping technology, silicon circuits being not quite the same as departing hit sitcoms. And after all, anything that cuts into all of that time and cyberspace bestowed “Titanic” in 1998 can’t be entirely bad. Yet . . . get a grip.

It’s hard avoiding talk of “Seinfeld” and Jerry Seinfeld these days. The series is the cover story for the current Newsweek, which says it was given access to the last taping on the condition that it not reveal anything about the script.

The talk continues even though Seinfeld himself appears to have granted only one major interview--the core of a 12-page cover story and picture spread in the current Vanity Fair--en route to the show’s departure. Seinfeld greets us on the cover dressed as a smirking Napoleon, and inside Vanity Fair begins: “As the ‘Seinfeld’ crew puts the finishing touches on the final episodes and its star prepares to take the next step, a worried nation bites its lip and asks . . . So What’s to Become of Our Jerry?”

Talk about your information glut.

In truth, this newspaper and others have pursued their own Seinfeld interviews. Far better that, arguably, than the spreading deluge of extraneous bilge. And it’s this eruption of bad or trivial information, plus all of the little “news nuggets” that we’re increasingly exposed to, that “Data Smog” addresses specifically.

Shenk advocates that the government, in its role as consumer protector, get involved in reducing the information glut. That may be a little extreme for “Seinfeld” smog, not all of which is worthless.

As part of its own drum roll, for example, KNBC-TV Channel 4 aired a somewhat interesting, if slight, story Tuesday morning speculating about the benefits of “product placement” in the final “Seinfeld”--that is to say, the profitability of having a commercial product (a breakfast cereal, for instance) showing up in the background during the special hour episode.

On the other hand. . . .

Am I the only one who has had it up to here with the continual dialogue about “Seinfeld” in print and on TV? It’s the yada, yada that refuses to end (and yes, I know, this column adds to the buzz). If I, a fanatical devotee of the series, feel this way, imagine what non-fans of “Seinfeld” must be going through. Think of what it would be like, for example, hearing nonstop about “Wheel of Fortune.”

It’s the times. From corporate megamergers to gorging on celebrities, this is the age of elaborate bigness. Yet there is something ironic about this enormity bursting from such a small screen. And burst it has, for the huge din over “Seinfeld” is merely an extension of what we’ve already seen and heard on TV on subjects ranging from Princess Diana and O.J. Simpson to Monica Lewinsky.

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Although none of the media is immune to excess, it’s TV that makes the most noise with its movable herds of camera crews. They and their subjects are interchangeable. Who could distinguish between the media crowds stalking Lewinsky and grand jury witnesses in Washington with the hordes that recently rushed to the “Seinfeld” set for the show’s final taping, in hopes of learning something of the secret concluding story line, about which there has been so much speculation?

You could insert Lewinsky into this witless chaos and no one would know the difference.

Hoping for cosmic ratings, NBC and “Seinfeld” have played this shrewdly by taking extraordinary precautions to keep the contents of the final script from snoops. Here’s hoping they succeed. When you think of it, why all the media frenzy to break them down? This is media acting as mindlessly and automatically as sharks.

“Most of us will just have to wait until next month,” lamented a thwarted TV reporter staking out “Seinfeld” for the final taping.

So? Why is it essential that we learn details of the script in advance? Count me as one who can wait. In fact, I don’t want to know in advance, any more than I would the plot details of movies I plan to see. I’d rather encounter it fresh, and be surprised.

Meanwhile, the official NBC Web site for “Seinfeld” features a clock counting the days, hours and seconds to the final episode. And I’m biting my lip and trying to avoid the smog.