Information overload – and why we need smart filters so urgently

Be it in our private or professional lives, be it daytime or night-time, we are permanently flooded with information. The overload of input negatively affects our brains and capabilities. Therefore, effective strategies for counteraction have to be designed and installed.

Although we mostly associate information overload with the impacts of the recent years’ data revolution, the term is already somewhat older: It was coined in 1964 and gained popularity due to the bestselling book “Future Shock” by Alvin Toffler in 1970. In fact, what we experience is nothing new, not even is it restricted to modernity. Ever since humanity got hold of scripture it captured knowledge in writing and thus compiled it. Gutenberg’s printing added acceleration for the first time. Digitalisation is simply the cumulating point of an enduring process. Its great force finds its roots in sheer endless saving capacities, unprecedented velocity, possibilities to record whatsoever move or action taken, as well as very easy access and options to contribute for anyone. As a consequence, data is available everywhere in abundant quantity.

Mapping the problem

Information as such is not at all a bad thing. We need it to base our decisions on it. Without being informed we will inevitably make bad decisions. However, there is a tipping point of having too much information: Whereas the amount of available information and the quality in decision-making rises in correlation to begin with, there eventually comes a point of divergence. When we are confronted with an information overload, we are overcharged and our processing capacities decrease. Not only do our brains disregard new input but we are also unable to take in an amount of information we would have had no problem with before the situation of overloading.

Mental health practitioners call the described phenomenon Information Fatigue Syndrome (IFS). [1] Common symptoms are poor concentration resulting from overchallenging the short-term memory, decreased productivity, chronic state of irritability, or common side-effects of stress like lowered immune response, endocrine disorder or depression.

Modern technology constitutes an exacerbating factor. On the one hand there is this gigantic amount of available information, with its specific character adding even more to its troublesomeness. That is, there is not only too much of it, but its quality and usefulness is always to be questioned. Uncertainty and ambiguity are dominant concomitant features contributing to users’ stress level. Also, as information is continuously updated, it is hard to keep up with its everchanging content. Medical studies show that human brains are programmed to seek novelty. So, if there is too much of it, the brain is overworked due to its aspiration to view all of it. Nature outwits us, so to say.

On the other hand, modern technology includes new means of communication which are further contributing to stressing us out: We are highly interconnected with each other and required to be contactable non-stop. Studies show how strongly message or email alerts truly distract us. On average people need almost 25 minutes to return to their work after an email interruption, because in most cases reading and answering the received message represents merely the starting point for further sources for drifting off. We might check other messages or updates as well or have a look at tasks we left aside before. Getting back to one’s primary task demands intense refocusing which can quickly be destroyed again by the next incoming mail – what won’t take long as any knowledge worker is certainly able to confirm.

Finding cure

Possible solutions can be found, first, in personal behavioural change. Trying to find ways to cope with information flooding, people often develop various, rather unproductive mehtods: There is the tendency to destroy information without any prior evaluation, to waste time on hoarding information without then considering it, to simply oppose all innovation or to examine everything possible but being unable to reach a decision. Instead we should try to prioritise, eliminate disturbances, recognise valuable information and concentrate on that exclusively in order to yield maximum benefit.

What sounds so logic, is nothing like easy though. Therefore, technology can offer help where human brains alone do not suffice. Technology thus creates not only the problem but can also serve as remedy. Filters are already a standard feature when browsing online or using social media. Either we choose them on our own, or they use algorithms based on personal data and that of our contacts. Yet, such filters might shift the problem just somewhat: We might not be exposed to an overload of information, but we are very likely presented only one side of the whole picture, namely that which is supposed to please us. Consequently, biases and prejudices are enforced and we are stripped off the possibility of balanced information gathering. In order to prevent the dominance of such information bubbles, we need smart filters. Here a field longing for innovation and progress opens up.

When it comes to the discussed matter of overfull mailboxes, there are already more progressive technologies in place. [2] First, there is software prioritising incoming e-mails identifying their importance based on flagged contacts or their general status of being a client or subordinate, for instance. To take it one step further, some programmes include the function to alert only in case of immediately important emails. It is able to realise whether the user is intensely working, according to mouse and typing patterns, and holds back notifications for that time span. Possibly, an automatically generated message is sent to the e-mail’s originator informing about the delayed notification and giving him or her the option of instant interruption if indeed necessary.

The development of smart filters of this kind is a well-suited answer to the ever-growing pile of information brought to our attention day per day. It is worth investing in such concepts and pursuing research, as it has the power to massively enhance life quality as well as productivity.

References

1. Ruff, J. (2002). Information Overload: Causes, Symptoms and Solutions. [online] Available at: https://workplacepsychology.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/information_overload_causes_symptoms_and_solutions_ruff.pdf
2. Hemp, P. (2009). Death by Information Overload. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2009/09/death-by-information-overload

Keywords

information overload, IFS, Information Fatigue Syndrome, information bubble, filter

Author: Andrea Ruscher