Difference between revisions of "Infoglut"
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
The Information Age (also known as The Computer Age, The Digital Age, The New Media Age), started in the 1970s and is still going on today. It follows on from the Industrial Age that preceded it, and has its title due to the rapid transition from the global economy's focus on industrialization to informational technology. In this era, the computing power, storage and memory capacity as well as speed of computers have risen exponentially, facilitating the abundance of information that now exists. Since the onset of the Information Age, the rise in information and computation has led to a rise in innovations, data analysis and has paved the way for further job creation and economic globalization. The full effect on the economy is not yet fully understood, and is largely debated still. | The Information Age (also known as The Computer Age, The Digital Age, The New Media Age), started in the 1970s and is still going on today. It follows on from the Industrial Age that preceded it, and has its title due to the rapid transition from the global economy's focus on industrialization to informational technology. In this era, the computing power, storage and memory capacity as well as speed of computers have risen exponentially, facilitating the abundance of information that now exists. Since the onset of the Information Age, the rise in information and computation has led to a rise in innovations, data analysis and has paved the way for further job creation and economic globalization. The full effect on the economy is not yet fully understood, and is largely debated still. | ||
| − | === | + | === Research and Publications === |
Since the 1990s, there has been many books that extensively discuss Infoglut and its effects, [[File:Infoglut.jpg|thumbnail|Marc Andrejevic's Book On Infoglut, 2013]] positives and negatives and ways to curb its downsides using advanced technology. "Managing the Infoglut : Information Filtering Using Neural Networks" exemplifies the kind of work that existed ahead of its time regarding both Infoglut and Neural Networks, terms that have come to light in the 21st century with the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence. The book discusses the dangers of too much information and the speed with which data can accumulate, and how to maintain the ability to efficiently retrieve information from within the data, through the use of an "electronic superhighway." In 1997, David Shenk wrote a book called "Data Smog : Surviving the Info Glut" which similarly highlights the dangers and drawbacks of the Information Age and how it leads to Information Anxiety. There have been works, especially articles throughout the 2000s including "The Profession of IT - Infoglut" by Peter J. Denning and "Infoglut" by Nathan Zeldes. Marc Andrejevic's "Infoglut : How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think And Know" was the latest book on Infoglut that caused a major wave, and is seen the cornerstone for material on the subject by many. | Since the 1990s, there has been many books that extensively discuss Infoglut and its effects, [[File:Infoglut.jpg|thumbnail|Marc Andrejevic's Book On Infoglut, 2013]] positives and negatives and ways to curb its downsides using advanced technology. "Managing the Infoglut : Information Filtering Using Neural Networks" exemplifies the kind of work that existed ahead of its time regarding both Infoglut and Neural Networks, terms that have come to light in the 21st century with the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence. The book discusses the dangers of too much information and the speed with which data can accumulate, and how to maintain the ability to efficiently retrieve information from within the data, through the use of an "electronic superhighway." In 1997, David Shenk wrote a book called "Data Smog : Surviving the Info Glut" which similarly highlights the dangers and drawbacks of the Information Age and how it leads to Information Anxiety. There have been works, especially articles throughout the 2000s including "The Profession of IT - Infoglut" by Peter J. Denning and "Infoglut" by Nathan Zeldes. Marc Andrejevic's "Infoglut : How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think And Know" was the latest book on Infoglut that caused a major wave, and is seen the cornerstone for material on the subject by many. | ||
Revision as of 16:34, 15 March 2019
Infoglut is a term that refers to the availability of vast and constantly accumulating disorganized data that is hard to navigate through or draw conclusions from, making it a large but mostly useless clutter of information. It is generally associated with the feeling of being overwhelmed by the excessive amounts of information being presented, devoid of any meaning or patterns. Therefore, it is closely related to the concepts of Information Overload and Information Anxiety. Infoglut is classified by some, notably by Luciano Floridi as an Epistemological problem, which is a broader philosophical concept dealing with the theory of knowledge and perception. Floridi has described Infoglut as -
"Infoglut means that at a certain point the whole system does not absorb anything."
The growth of technology and rapid increase in ability to distribute as well as access information, and the shift in focus towards "Big Data" has been the primary factor in causing an excess or "overload" of information. Consequently, the effect of being rendered unable to absorb information due to the sheer mass of information available has grown into a large ethical issue that has stemmed from technological and informational advances.
Contents
Origin and Evolution
Infoglut is derived from Information Glut, and its origins date as far back as the early-mid 1990s, where it has been mentioned in several articles and books. Thomas John's 1994 book "Managing the Infoglut : Information Filtering Using Neural Networks" is an indicator of the widespread use and research surrounding the term, an entire decade before the World Wide Web was discovered. Having appeared in several published works since, the term was most recently publicized by Marc Andrejevic's book "Infoglut : How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think And Know", which was published in 2013.
The Information Age
The Information Age (also known as The Computer Age, The Digital Age, The New Media Age), started in the 1970s and is still going on today. It follows on from the Industrial Age that preceded it, and has its title due to the rapid transition from the global economy's focus on industrialization to informational technology. In this era, the computing power, storage and memory capacity as well as speed of computers have risen exponentially, facilitating the abundance of information that now exists. Since the onset of the Information Age, the rise in information and computation has led to a rise in innovations, data analysis and has paved the way for further job creation and economic globalization. The full effect on the economy is not yet fully understood, and is largely debated still.
Research and Publications
Since the 1990s, there has been many books that extensively discuss Infoglut and its effects, positives and negatives and ways to curb its downsides using advanced technology. "Managing the Infoglut : Information Filtering Using Neural Networks" exemplifies the kind of work that existed ahead of its time regarding both Infoglut and Neural Networks, terms that have come to light in the 21st century with the meteoric rise of Artificial Intelligence. The book discusses the dangers of too much information and the speed with which data can accumulate, and how to maintain the ability to efficiently retrieve information from within the data, through the use of an "electronic superhighway." In 1997, David Shenk wrote a book called "Data Smog : Surviving the Info Glut" which similarly highlights the dangers and drawbacks of the Information Age and how it leads to Information Anxiety. There have been works, especially articles throughout the 2000s including "The Profession of IT - Infoglut" by Peter J. Denning and "Infoglut" by Nathan Zeldes. Marc Andrejevic's "Infoglut : How Too Much Information Is Changing the Way We Think And Know" was the latest book on Infoglut that caused a major wave, and is seen the cornerstone for material on the subject by many.
Ethical Issues
The rise in Information has also seen a a host of related ethical issues surface along with it. Infoglut hampers people's decision making abilities by offering too many details and information, the surplus of which leads to high levels of indecisiveness and an endless circle of searching. Besides this, the increase in volume of information has led to multiple large scale cases of invasion of privacy, where personal data and information has become a traceable commodity, for the sake of greater consumer information, leading to better targeting and profit making ventures. Facebook Cambridge Analytica Scandal of 2018 came as a huge shock to millions of users of the platform who's personal information was potentially compromised in favor of data collection, leading to concerns that this case was just scratching the surface of such informational transactions.
It has also raised environmental concerns, since managements and corporations are said to have increased their usage of paper, given the high volume of information needed to be documented tangibly.
References
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ544699 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4615-2734-3_16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UHTPkeByLM http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/infoglut.html
