Our modern world is filled with a continuous stream of information. We can find information about everything we need, want and could ever hope for in the back of our pocket. While this does give value to our daily lives, such a vast amount of information could also lead to an information overload.
Social media
An example of this information overload is Social Media. In 2018, the average daily time spent on social media is above 2 hours (Statista, 2018). Therefore a significant amount of our time is spent on social media. However, research shows that such a connected environment actually induces stress and fatigue upon the user. Since users need to continuously pay attention to an overwhelming demand of social networking services, users obtain an information overload and are more prone to fatigue which could lead to psychological and physical strain (Lee, Son & Kim, 2016).
News
Another industry that is bombarded with information is the news industry. Technology has made the world more inter-connected and therefore we are shown a lot more news. A survey conducted by Gallup (2018) showed that 58 percents of the respondents argued that it was difficult for them to stay properly informed, even though they had access to news sources. The problem here is that an explosion of information creates a barrier in staying well informed. Furthermore, social media has drawn groups of individuals into a more confined space. This means that, on social media, every individual is shown certain content that reflects his/her own beliefs. This creates a cycle in which individuals are only confronted with news that they want to see, which most likely will validate their beliefs. Finally, the term ‘fake news’ is one that has garnered notoriety in the recent few years. While individuals such as Donald Trump might make you think that ‘fake news’ is in fact fake news, there is no denying that it has become more easy to manipulate audiences and provide fake information to the public. For example, the Dutch government (n.d) has started a campaign called ‘Blijf Kritisch’ which translates to ‘remain critical’ in which they argue that you should be wary of information that you read and remain critical of everything.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the information age has been a blessing for human society. However, an overload of information cannot just be annoying, it can be harmful and dangerous for society. Therefore it is wise to sometimes take a step back and distantiate yourself from this ubiquitous information that surrounds us all.
References:
Gallup (2018). American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy. Knight Foundation. Available at: https://kf-site-production.s3.amazonaws.com/publications/pdfs/000/000/242/original/KnightFoundation_AmericansViews_Client_Report_010917_Final_Updated.pdf
Lee, A. R., Son, S. M., & Kim, K. K. (2016). Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 51-61.
Rijksoverheid (n.d). Desinformatie en nepnieuws. Rijksoverheid. Available at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/desinformatie-nepnieuws
Statista (2018). Daily social media usage worldwide. Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
Couldn’t agree more! I personally struggle to decide what to read and what not to read. Many news headlines on a wide variety of news app (NYTimes, NOS, Nu.nl, NRC, The Guardian, FT, Medium, The Verge, Bloomberg, etc.) trigger me and I would be able to read everything I wanted to if I spent a whole day at home on my phone, but there simply is no time for that. How do you stay well informed? Personally, I try by selecting my preferences or fields of interest on these different apps (i.e. Technology, Business, Sports, etc.), but even then there is a huge overload. Blendle, a Dutch start-up selects articles from different newspapers and provides them to users for a small fee. This could perhaps be a gateway to channeling your focus and interests, saving you from an incredible information overload (check it out: https://blendle.com/getpremium)
Hi Joram,
Thank you for this blog post! I fully agree with you on this matter, both on the blessing of information and the downside of information. I actually wanted to extent your blog post by sharing something I have read recently, which gave me some new insights in this matter.
As described by you as well, the society we currently live in is completely shaped by information. Our access to information actually has made our lives a lot easier. And we are not the only ones experiencing benefits from this. The companies actually providing this information to us, are the ones who currently dominate the world. I’m talking about Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and so on. These companies are our gatekeepers to information so to say. The companies who structure our need for information the best, are the ones we go to and therefore giving them more power over us. Their algorithms actually create a sort of spiral, as when we receive the exact information we want, we go to these gatekeepers more often, enabling the algorithm to learn more from us to provide us with even better information. If we lose our ability (and will) to stay critical of everything we read, we are only as smart as these companies allows us to be.
This was a new insight I received when reading the book of Franklin Foer called: World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech. I would highly recommend this book!