Information Overload - The Diigo Meta page

• 06 Dec 09
  

  maximilian yuen
  • Data is like food. A good meal is served in reasonably-sized portions from several food groups. It leaves you satisfied but not stuffed. Likewise with information, we're best served when we can partake of reasonable, useful portions, exercising discretion in what data we digest and how often we seek it out.
  • Unfortunately, we often do the opposite, ingesting information constantly to the point of choking on it. The risk of information asphyxiation touches all of us -- managers, Web surfers, even lazy couch tubers.
  • 10 more annotations...
  • • The most obvious locus of information inundation is the office: e-mail, voice mail, phone calls, meetings, business journals, faxes, memos, manuals, Web research. The list goes on. Far from bringing about the anticipated "paperless office" and reduced work load, technological innovations have increased both areas.
    • David Shenk, in his book Data Smog, reports that between 1980 and 1990, paper consumption in the U.S. tripled to 1,800 pounds per person. Sixty percent of the average office worker's time is spent processing paper documents. Additionally, "the typical business manager is said to read one million words per week." That's the equivalent of one and a half full-length novels per day.
    • Also at fault, however, is the medium and people's lack of training in how to effectively use it. When employees use e-mail to communicate with someone 50 feet away, there's a problem. Saving customer quotes in a general "user" directory is just asking for the document to become lost among hundreds of other files. Inefficient inventory software yields frustration where a simple list on paper would do the trick.
    • The problem continues even outside the office. A Sunday edition of the New York Times carries more information than the average 19th-century citizen accessed in his entire life.
    • Cable and satellite TV offer dozens of channels of meaningless drivel. The check-out line at the supermarket proffers a host of magazines

    • David Lewis of the International Stress Management Association originated the phrase "information fatigue syndrome." The barrage of data to which we are constantly exposed carries a cost, both physically and mentally.
      

      In many ways, it is a bona fide addiction. I can live without the Web for a week, but I start getting antsy after a single day without checking my e-mail. At night, I read constantly from the dozen or so periodicals to which I subscribe while my wife channel surfs.

    • David Shenk sites psychological studies spanning thirty years and lists several of the symptoms which accompany information overload:
      

      • Increased cardiovascular stress, due to a rise in blood pressure,
        

      • Weakened vision, siting a Japanese study which predicts a nearly universal near-sightedness in the close future,
        

      • Confusion (see below) and frustration,
        

      • Impaired judgement based upon overconfidence,
        

      • Decreased benevolence to others due to an environmental input glut (which may very well account for part of the "brusqueness" which is commonly attributed to big-city dwellers).
    • Researchers at Israel's Tel Aviv University studied 76 electronics industry clerks and found that the sense of relaxation and happiness derived from a vacation began to fade only three days after returning to work.
    • Pre-vacation levels of stress and burn-out returned within a mere three weeks (Journal of Applied Psychology, August 1997). For those who remain "in touch" via pagers, cell phones, laptops, radio, and TV, the results will be even more dismal.
    • On a society-wide level, the dangers of information overload are enormous. The engendered feelings of helplessness, confusion, and anger will erode work efficiency, family functioning, and most likely increase crime rates.
• 27 Sep 08
  

  Christina Andrade

  "Fighting data asphyxiation is difficult but possible" by William Van Winkle

  information-overload productivity procrastination anxiety

• 11 Sep 08
  

  Robert Wilson

  information_overload

• 02 Oct 06
  

  Jennie

Would you like to comment?

Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.