Here's a regular occurrence for me:

I took my daughter to shop for clothes at Target. She picked out an outfit and wanted to try it on but it was in a pack and needed to be separated first. I found a clerk and asked her to separate it. But, the clerk didn't speak English - only Spanish. So, she took me to another clerk. But, that clerk also didn't speak English - only Arabic. And, neither could talk to each other.

If that's not societal "cognitive load", what is it?

These are just the harmless occurrences. I could go on to much more alarming examples, but I won't.

This is such a good example. I was recently talking to an appliance repair company and the fact that the woman spoke good English is now a remarkable thing. Like it really stood out!