Information Overload

Information overload refers to the mental exhaustion that comes from being exposed to too much information. Moreover, this exposure often leads to an increased difficulty in the comprehension of an issue. In the technological era, information overload is more prevalent than ever before because of the abundance of data and information online (and in the physical world around us). One can become overwhelmed when trying to gather particular pieces of information because it is rather difficult to filter or reduce the information size to something that is more manageable and digestible. Luciano Floridi discusses the overwhelming nature of information overload and notes that, “…at a certain point the system does not absorb anything”. In this instance, humans can be considered the ‘system,’ for they have a limited capacity to absorb and process information.

Modern technological systems have been a large driver in accommodating the large amounts of data that are accessible for both personal use and organizations information technology. While algorithms and filters allow people to manage the large quantities of information with which they are presented, information overload continues to carry ethical implications, including the hinderance in an individual's ability to make informed decisions. Moreover, as a result of one's effort to reduce information overload, said person might find him/herself in a filter bubble (or an echo chamber) - which has proven to be dangerous.

The CIA Model of Information Security consists of three components for correctly protecting information.

History

Information preservation has been prevalent since its emphasis by Renaissance humanists. This primarily followed Gutenberg's invention of the printing press and the ability of the general public to have access to an amount of information that they had never had access to within a short period of time. Within the 1700’s a growing concern developed pertaining to the increasing availability of books. Specifically, within Germany, France, and England, there was a significant surge of the production of books from 1750 to 1800: an increase of 150%. Christian Thomasius argued that the standards of the books being published was decreasing given the large volume that was being produced. . This depletion of book standards may be considered the first observed setback as a result of information overload.

Since then, there has been an information explosion. The first time this term was used was a New York Times article in 1964 when author Walter Sullivan described that there was much to be discussed involving this phrase and its dominance in an emerging information culture.

Modern Information Age

With respect to the modern age, information overload has gained its prevalence due to the speed at which information is produced and published (primarily via the internet). On a daily basis active internet users are exposed to emails, news publications, search engines, etc. whose overwhelming side effect for many are caused my instant notification and alerts on their mobile devices and computers.

This modern day information overload is also referred to as an “information glut”, “infobesity”, and “information anxiety”.

Driving Forces

Social Media

Within the realm of shared content, the amount of information that individuals are able to access has been undoubtedly shaped by the prominence of social media. Social networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have served as significant contributors to the amount of information individual users are subjected to on a daily basis. While users remain connected to a seemingly unlimited amount of content, there is only more opportunity information overload to flourish. It has even reached the point where there has been a popularized call to action to reduce the amount of time spent on social media - and mobile devices in general. Apple has recently introduced a "Screen Time" functionality which aims to help users become more aware of how much time they are spending on the consumption of social media content. Effectively, any form of content can be potentially overwhelming.

Internet Reliability Controversy

The average person now has access to billions of publications, each with their own biases and political affiliations. The accuracy and credibility of these publications have become increasingly questionable. This idea of “fake news” is one that has gained traction and has contributed to feelings of anxiety, confusion and overwhelm when taking in information. The onus has shifted onto the users (and away from the sources) to read with a critical perspective and question the credibility of sources, texts and publications.

Reaction

Adjusting to Information Overload

The recent decade has seen a surge in the demand for techniques and methods to adjust to - and cope with - the rising amount of information. Given the nature of this topic, there are two ways that an individual can choose to deal with it: (1) he/she can attempt to reduce the amount of information that is incoming or (2) he/she can expand upon his/her ability to sift through and process information. With respect to a reduction in information, minimizing the number of notifications that an individual receives may reduce the overwhelming amount of “noise” that an individual is subject to. .

Richard Saul Wurman describes the issue of information overload as being one of the organization of information, rather than an issue of there being too much available. This “information anxiety” is, therefore, the result of a disorganization of complex data as well as the average person not being “information literate” in their ability to process and interpret an abundance of information. Information Management has gained its relevance as an organizational priority due to the fact that it adds efficiency to the process of creating relevance to (and the transformation of data to) information.

Information Anxiety by Richard Saul Wurman.

Ethical Implications

The main ethical concern regarding information overload is the concept that the average person's ability to make decision is tampered with due to the overwhelming amount of information that is available to them. There has also been an increase in the level of entropy that an individual experiences with the increasing amount of information that they have access to. This is primarily caused by the misalignment of the rate at which digital information is being produced and the rate at which individuals can process information. There soon develops a "poverty of attention".

Luciano Floridi discusses the many ethical implications of having access to a plethora of public information. He acknowledges a greater discussion of privacy concerns dealing with individuals in public groups. He questions, ""does respect for individual's privacy require respect for privacy of the group to which the individual belongs to?".

With an abundance of different sources of information online, it is possible to remain in an information bubble. For example, Shirley Chapian exists in a far right echo chamber, where she receives and shares information exclusively from far right sources. These echo chambers act to strength existing biases. Eli Pariser calls these information bubbles filter bubbles-the bubble that users get stuck in when they use too many filters. Essentially, the filter bubble causes users to filter their results down so narrowly that they do not encounter any information that challenges their current perspective. The filter bubble is created because of the problem of information overload, so it becomes increasing important to combat this problem.

Future Trends

Recent research suggests that an "attention economy" of sorts will naturally emerge from information overload. Matthew Crawford defines this as "Attention is a resource—a person has only so much of it." .This impacts business in both the products consumers look for and how business communicate internally with a growing desire for instantaneous reach and information. Whether it is the management of internal emails or the management of large amounts of data, this overwhelming feeling that comes with large amounts of information has seeped into a corporate setting.

See Also

• Information Ethics
• Luciano Floridi