Information Overload

"Information overload" (nicknamed infobesity) is a term popularized by Alvin Toffler in his bestselling 1970 book Future Shock. It refers to the difficulty a person can have understanding an issue and making decisions that can be caused by the presence of too much information. The term itself is mentioned in a 1964 book by Bertram Gross, The Managing of Organizations. “Information overload occurs when the amount of input to a system exceeds its processing capacity. Decision makers have fairly limited cognitive processing capacity. Consequently, when information overload occurs, it is likely that a reduction in decision quality will occur.”

The term and concept precede the Internet and can be viewed from a library and information sciences perspective or viewed as a psychology phenomenon. In psychology, information overload relates to an overabundance of incoming information into the senses. Toffler's explanation of it presents information overload as the Information Age's version of sensory overload, a term that had been introduced in the 1950s. Sensory overload was thought to cause disorientation and lack of responsiveness. Toffler posited information overload as having the same sorts of effects, but on the higher cognitive functions, writing: "When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation, or a novelty-loaded context ... his predictive accuracy plummets. He can no longer make the reasonably correct assessments on which rational behavior is dependent."

As the world moves into a new era of globalization, an increasing number of people are connecting to the Internet to conduct their own research and are given the ability to produce as well as consume the data accessed on an increasing number of websites. Users are now classified as active users because more people in society are participating in the Digital and Information Age. More and more people are considered to be active writers and viewers because of their participation. This flow has created a new life where we are now in danger of becoming dependent on this method of access to information. Therefore we see an information overload from the access to so much information, almost instantaneously, without knowing the validity of the content and the risk of misinformation.

According to Sonora Jha of Seattle University, journalists are using the Web to conduct their research, getting information regarding interviewing sources and press releases, updating news online, and thus it shows the gradual shifts in attitudes because of the rapid increase in use of the Internet. Lawrence Lessig has described this as the "read-write" nature of the internet.

“The resulting abundance of – and desire for more (and/or higher quality) – information has come to be perceived in some circles, paradoxically, as the source of as much productivity loss as gain.” Information Overload (IO) is simply the idea or notion of being constantly overloaded with information. This overload can lead to “information anxiety” which is the gap between the information we understand and the information that we think that we must understand. We consume information daily through news stories, e-mails, blog posts, Facebook statuses, Tweets, Tumblr posts and a variety of sources. These new sources of information are leading to people, in a way, becoming their own editors, gatekeepers, or aggregators when it comes to this consumption. The old phrase “You are what you eat” is true and this can be extended to the information people consume. How people consume information through their use of the Internet can be reflective of their interests and identity. This could be a reason as to why there is a concern about information overload and the effect that it can have on people’s lives. One concern is the effect that massive amounts of information can be a distraction to a person’s attention and productivity as well as decision-making, leading to a large amount of research done on this idea as it affects various scholarly disciplines and people’s lives. Another could be the end of “useful” information that is being mixed with information that might not be entirely accurate. Research done is often done with the view that IO is a problem that can be understood in a rational way.