Information overload

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Information overload is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue.

The quality of a decision is decreased when a decision-maker is given many sets of information.

Modern information technology has brought information overload, which is associated with over-exposure, excessive viewing of information, and input abundance of information and data.

The concept of information overload is not new. Simmel observed that city dwellers become jaded due to an overload of sensations in the modern urban world.

People can process 7 chunks of information at a time and can become confused if they receive too much information.

The concept of "information overload" was introduced by Diderot long before the term "information overload" was coined.

The term "information glut" has evolved into phrases such as "information smog", "data glut", and "information glut" in the internet age.

The production of information, especially books, has been documented in the past. The 3rd or 4th century BC saw the writer comment that of making books there is no end, and the 1st century AD saw Seneca the Elder comment on the abundance of books.

The printing press caused the creation of an overload of information by lowering production costs and making ancient texts available to the average person.

Following Gutenberg's invention, the introduction of mass printing was introduced in Western Europe. Information became readily available and accessible, allowing the educated to purchase books.

Although scholars were initially elated by the number of books that were readily available, they also complained about information overload, and asked, "Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?"

In 1795 German bookseller Johann Georg Heinzmann expressed concerns about the rise of books in Europe.

Scholars recorded information in paper slips for easier access to information. This system influenced the development of the library card catalog and the index card.

In his book The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood, author James Gleick discusses how information theory was created to bridge mathematics, engineering, and computing.

In the Information Age, people are bombarded with information, and technology is changing to serve our social culture.

Information technology in today's society exacerbates the number of interruptions, which results in more poor decisions.

As the world moves into a new era of globalization, more people are connecting to the Internet to conduct their own research, and view information. This has created the possibility for the spread of misinformation.

In the 21st century, information overload is the feeling that mankind is being drowned by the waves of data coming at it. IT corporate management implements training to improve the productivity of knowledge workers, but information overload is the feeling of being burdened, stressed, and overwhelmed.

At the Web 2.0 Expo in New York in 2008, Clay Shirky spoke about the effects of information overload on productivity and decision-making, as well as the contamination of useful information with inaccurate information.

The causes of information overload include a rapid rate of new information being produced, a continuous news culture, an increase in available channels of incoming information, a lack of comparison and processing methods, and a lack of a signal-to-noise ratio.

E-mail is a major source of information overload, and email attachments are a major problem.

A December 2007 New York Times blog post described e-mail as a $650 billion drag on the economy.

In January 2011, Eve Tahmincioglu wrote an article titled It's Time to Deal With That Overflowing Inbox. Using action and reference folders to manage email is more efficient than just replying to every email.

Nicholas Carr, the former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review and author of the book The Shallows, has stated that email causes people to become addicted to searching for new information. He also stated that a lack of information can make learning harder.

The World Wide Web provides users with access to billions of pages of information, including search engines to help them manage their own research, but the information may not always be reliable.

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger argues that everyone can be a participant on the internet and that we can no longer control the information we share with others.

Social media applications and websites can add to information overload by presenting many different views and outlooks on subject matters. The problem is that information overload may not be the core reason for people's anxieties about the amount of information they receive in their daily lives.

Researchers believe that information overload can result in searchers being less systematic and searchers being less able to search effectively.

Filtering and withdrawal are common responses to information, with the former avoiding information overload and the latter limiting the number of sources of information with which one interacts.

There are two general approaches to mitigate information overload: reduce the amount of incoming information or enhance the ability to process information.

Johnson advises people to stop using their phones as alarm clocks and to stop receiving notifications.

Information overload can be reduced by using Internet applications and add-ons such as the Inbox Pause add-on for Gmail.

A study done by Humboldt University showed that students took several strategies to deal with IO while using Facebook.

When performing complex tasks, decision-makers have little extra capacity and can lose information. When the number of distractions/interruptions increases, performance deteriorates more severely.

Some cognitive scientists and graphic designers have emphasized the distinction between information in a form that can be used in thinking and raw information, suggesting that information overload may actually be an issue of inadequate organization.

In a study by Soucek and Moser (2010), training on information overload had a positive impact on employees.

Researchers suggest that an attention economy will emerge from information overload, allowing users to control their online experience. This could be implemented by attaching a small fee to e-mail messages.

Lincoln suggests a holistic approach to the study of IO that takes into account many different factors that contribute to the effect of IO.

It is impossible for a person to read all the academic papers published in their field, so systematic reviews are published.

Information pollution, interruption overload, analysis paralysis, and memory loss are all symptoms of information overload.