Last year, the average American consumed 34 gigabytes of information a day, according to new research from UC San Diego.

Add up all of that information -- which includes both old media like books and newspapers, and new media like the Internet and video games -- and you get 3.6 zettabytes, which is, it's safe to say, a lot. Since 1980, the amount of data we consume has risen 350 percent, according to the study.