Information overload
Information overload (also known as infobesity,[1][2] infoxication,[3] or information anxiety,[4]) is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information (TMI) about that issue,[5] and is generally associated with the excessive quantity of daily information. The term "information overload" was first used as early as 1962 by scholars in management and information studies, including in Bertram Gross' 1964 book, The Managing of Organizations,[6][7] and was further popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book Future Shock.[8] Speier et al. (1999) said that if input exceeds the processing capacity, information overload occurs, which is likely to reduce the quality of the decisions.[9]
For the album by Alien Sex Fiend, see Information Overload (album).
In a newer definition, Roetzel (2019) focuses on time and resources aspects. He states that when a decision-maker is given many sets of information, such as complexity, amount, and contradiction, the quality of its decision is decreased because of the individual's limitation of scarce resources to process all the information and optimally make the best decision.[10]
The advent of modern information technology has been a primary driver of information overload on multiple fronts: in quantity produced, ease of dissemination, and breadth of the audience reached. Longstanding technological factors have been further intensified by the rise of social media including the attention economy, which facilitates attention theft.[11][12] In the age of connective digital technologies, informatics, the Internet culture (or the digital culture), information overload is associated with over-exposure, excessive viewing of information, and input abundance of information and data.
History[edit]
Early history[edit]
Information overload has been documented throughout periods where advances in technology have increased a production of information. As early as the 3rd or 4th century BC, people regarded information overload with disapproval. Around this time, in Ecclesiastes 12:12, the passage revealed the writer's comment "of making books there is no end" and in the 1st century AD, Seneca the Elder commented, that "the abundance of books is distraction". In 1255, the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais, also commented on the flood of information: "the multitude of books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory."[13] Similar complaints around the growth of books were also mentioned in China. There were also information enthusiasts. The Library of Alexandria was established around the 3rd century BCE or 1st century Rome, which introduced acts of preserving historical artifacts. Museums and libraries established universal grounds of preserving the past for the future, but much like books, libraries were only granted with limited access.
Renaissance[edit]
Renaissance humanists always had a desire to preserve their writings and observations,[13] but were only able to record ancient texts by hand because books were expensive and only the privileged and educated could afford them. Humans experience an overload in information by excessively copying ancient manuscripts and replicating artifacts, creating libraries and museums that have remained in the present.[13] Around 1453 AD, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and this marked another period of information proliferation. As a result of lowering production costs, generation of printed materials ranging from pamphlets, manuscripts to books were made available to the average person.
Following Gutenberg's invention, the introduction of mass printing began in Western Europe. Information overload was often experienced by the affluent, but the circulation of books were becoming rapidly printed and available at a lower cost, allowing the educated to purchase books. Information became recordable, by hand, and could be easily memorized for future storage and accessibility. This era marked a time where inventive methods were established to practice information accumulation. Aside from printing books and passage recording, encyclopedias and alphabetical indexes were introduced, enabling people to save and bookmark information for retrieval. These practices marked both present and future acts of information processing.
Swiss scientist Conrad Gessner commented on the increasing number of libraries and printed books,[13] and was most likely the first academic who discussed the consequences of information overload as he observed how "unmanageable" information came to be after the creation of the printing press.[17]
Blair notes that while scholars were elated with the number of books available to them, they also later experienced fatigue with the amount of excessive information that was readily available and overpopulated them. Scholars complained about the abundance of information for a variety of reasons, such as the diminishing quality of text as printers rushed to print manuscripts and the supply of new information being distracting and difficult to manage. Erasmus, one of the many recognized humanists of the 16th century asked, "Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?".[18]
18th century[edit]
Many grew concerned with the rise of books in Europe, especially in England, France, and Germany. From 1750 to 1800, there was a 150% increase in the production of books. In 1795, German bookseller and publisher Johann Georg Heinzmann said "no nation printed as much as the Germans" and expressed concern about Germans reading ideas and no longer creating original thoughts and ideas.[19]
To combat information overload, scholars developed their own information records for easier and simply archival access and retrieval. Modern Europe compilers used paper and glue to cut specific notes and passages from a book and pasted them to a new sheet for storage. Carl Linnaeus developed paper slips, often called his botanical paper slips, from 1767 to 1773, to record his observations. Blair argues that these botanical paper slips gave birth to the "taxonomical system" that has endured to the present, influencing both the mass inventions of the index card and the library card catalog.[18]
Information Age[edit]
In his book, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, published in 2011, author James Gleick notes that engineers began taking note of the concept of information, quickly associated it in a technical sense: information was both quantifiable and measurable. He discusses how information theory was created to first bridge mathematics, engineering, and computing together, creating an information code between the fields. English speakers from Europe often equated "computer science" to "informatique, informatica, and Informatik".[20] This leads to the idea that all information can be saved and stored on computers, even if information experiences entropy. But at the same time, the term information, and its many definitions have changed.
In the second half of the 20th century, advances in computer and information technology led to the creation of the Internet.
In the modern Information Age, information overload is experienced as distracting and unmanageable information such as email spam, email notifications, instant messages, Tweets and Facebook (Meta) updates in the context of the work environment.[21] Social media has resulted in "social information overload", which can occur on sites like Meta (previously Facebook), and technology is changing to serve our social culture.
In today's society, day-to-day activities increasingly involve the technological world where information technology exacerbates the number of interruptions that occur in the work environment.[22] Management may be even more disrupted in their decision making, and may result in more poor decisions. Thus, the PIECES framework mentions information overload as a potential problem in existing information systems.[23]
As the world moves into a new era of globalization, an increasing number of people connect to the internet to conduct their own research[24] and are given the ability to contribute to publicly accessible data. This has elevated the risk for the spread of misinformation.
In a 2018 literature review, Roetzel indicates that information overload can be seen as a virus—spreading through (social) media and news networks.[10]
The latest research hypothesizes that information overload is a multilevel phenomenon, i.e., there are different mechanisms responsible for its emergence at the individual, group, and the whole society levels, however, these levels are interlinked. [25]
Effects of information overload[edit]
In the context of searching for information, researchers have identified two forms of information overload: outcome overload where there are too many sources of information and textual overload where the individual sources are too long. This form of information overload may cause searchers to be less systematic. Disillusionment when a search is more challenging than expected may result in an individual being less able to search effectively. Information overload when searching can result in a satisficing strategy.[42]: 7