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Information overload refers to the state of having too much information to make a decision or remain informed about a topic. It is often referred to in conjunction with various forms of Computer-mediated communication such as e-mail and the Web. Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. ...
For other uses, see CMC. Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined broadly as any form of human interaction across two or more networked computers. ...
Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
Look up web in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
General Causes
The general causes of information overload include: - A rapidly increasing rate of new information being produced
- The ease of duplication and transmission of data across the Internet
- An increase in the available channels of incoming information (e.g. telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, rss)
- Large amounts of historical information to dig through
- Contradictions and inaccuracies in available information
- A low signal-to-noise ratio
- A lack of a method for comparing and processing different kinds of information
E-mail remains a major source of information overload, as people struggle to keep up with the rate of incoming messages. As well as filtering out unsolicited commercial messages (spam), users also have to contend with the growing use of e-mail attachments in the form of lengthy reports, presentations and media files. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
// Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ...
For other meanings of RSS, see RSS (disambiguation). ...
Signal-to-noise ratio (often abbreviated SNR or S/N) is an electrical engineering concept, also used in other fields (such as scientific measurements, biological cell signaling), defined as the ratio of a signal power to the noise power corrupting the signal. ...
E-mail spam, also known as bulk e-mail or junk e-mail is a subset of spam that involves sending nearly identical messages to numerous recipients by e-mail. ...
The term attachment has multiple meanings: An email attachment Psychological attachment: see Attachment theory Attachment as a vice in Buddhism; see Buddhism This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
A December 2007 New York Times blog post described E-mail as "a $650 Billion Drag on the Economy"[1], and the New York Times reported in April 2008 that "E-MAIL has become the bane of some people’s professional lives" due to information overload, yet "none of [the current wave of high-profile Internet startups focused on email] really eliminates the problem of e-mail overload because none helps us prepare replies".[2]
Technology investors reflect similar concerns.[3]
In addition to e-mail, the World Wide Web has provided access to billions of pages of information. In many offices, workers are given unrestricted access to the Web, allowing them to manage their own research. The use of search engines helps users to find information quickly. However, information published online may not always be reliable, due to the lack of authority-approval or a compulsory accuracy check before publication. This results in people having to cross-check what they read before using it for decision-making, which takes up more time. The World Wide Web and WWW redirect here. ...
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. ...
Psychological Effects As people are faced with growing levels of information overload, the inability to make clear and accurate decisions can increase their stress levels. Stress has different meanings in different fields: Look up stress in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
An article in the New Scientist magazine claimed that exposing individuals to an information overloaded environment resulted in lower IQ scores than exposing individuals to marijuana[4], although these results are contested[5]. The same article also notes that a night without sleep can be as debilitating as over-exposure to information. New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ...
IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ...
Cannabis, also known as marijuana[1] or ganja (Hindi: गांजा),[2] is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa. ...
Sleep deprivation is a general lack of the necessary amount of sleep. ...
Part of the problem of information overload can be traced to interruptions in the workplace. Interruptions include incoming e-mail messages, phone calls and instant messaging - all of which break mental focus, and redirect it to the source of the interruption. The person has to deal with the interruption, then redirect their attention back to the original task. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
// Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. ...
In 2005, research firm "Basex" calculated the cost of unnecessary interruptions and related recovery time at "$588 billion" per annum in the U.S. alone. That figure was updated to "$650 billion" in early 2007.
Response of Business and Government | | This section does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. | Many academics, corporate decision-makers, and federal policy-makers recognize the magnitude and growing impact of this phenomenon. In June 2008 a group of interested researchers from a diverse set of corporations, smaller companies, academic institutions and consultancies created the Information Overload Research Group (IORG), a non-profit interest group dedicated to raising awareness, sharing research results and promoting the creation of solutions around Information Overload.
Recent research suggests that an "attention economy" of sorts will naturally emerge from information overload, allowing Internet users greater control over their online experience with particular regard to communication mediums such as e-mail and instant messaging. This could involve some sort of cost being attached to e-mail messages. For example, managers charging a small fee for every e-mail received - e.g. $5.00 - which the sender must pay from their budget. The aim of such charging is to force the sender to consider the necessity of the interruption. Attention economics is an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems. ...
Related Terms A similar term "information pollution" was coined by Jakob Nielsen. The term "interruption overload" has begun to appear in newspapers such as the Financial Times. Jakob Nielsen useit. ...
The Financial Times (FT) is a British international business newspaper. ...
References Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...
is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 110th day of the year (111th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...
is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
See also In Library and Information Science, information explosion is a term used for the ever increasing rate of publication. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
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