Information overload occurs when we are presented with too much information, so much so that our minds are unable absorb and process it correctly. We live in a society where we are constantly bombarded with irrelevant, low quality, unfiltered information, more than is necessary for normal functioning. We are far more proficient at generating information than we are at processing it.
People as far back as the Renaissance period were concerned about the concept of consuming too much information with the invention of the printing press, which made it possible for written information to be widely reproduced and distributed, and therefore made more available to people. The society we live in today is surrounded by technological advances, the internet has made vast amounts of information easily available to everyone, so much so that we rely on search engines like Google and Yahoo to filter the information, making the information we seek easier to find. However, online material often contains factual errors and inconsistencies and many sites are unreliable in supplying correct information such as Wikipedia, this then requires further research. If online information is designed well it can make the process of finding relevant information easier and a lot less stressful.
Advances in technology have led to widespread access of the internet; take smart phones and the Iphone for example, portable devices that enable us to communicate to each other effectively with connectivity to the internet which enable us to browse the vast amount of information available on the web anywhere at any time, making the information we require instantly at our fingertips.
The advances in technology made us more prone to distractions; take for instance constantly receiving text messages, instant messages, emails and social network status updates, this evidently makes us less productive down to an inability to concentrate on the task at hand due to these regular interruptions.
Information overload has a long list of negative effects. Being exposed to too much information means that we are more likely to switch off early on and ignore large amounts of the information we are presented with. Being presented with too much information means that we are more likely to make wrong decisions and take more time to come to the right conclusions. When given a long list of options we are much more likely to choose options given at the start as our concentration is unlikely to last beyond these initial few.
Bibliography
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1039993/Information-overload-Switch-mobile-iPod-emails--technology-turning-brains-mush.html
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