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Spring 2001 |
Pam Green's Portfolio |
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Reflections of a Master of Library and Information Science student |
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Intellectual argument Information Overload: Is it all in our minds? Prepared for LIS502, Bruce/Green March 2000 The concept of information overload seems to be ubiquitous in our information rich society yet we continue to produce enormous amounts of information every day. This paper will review a selection of information science literature on the topic of information overload in an effort to decipher the background, definitions, causes and solutions for this phenomenon that affects some of us more than others. It will also explore the idea that information overload rests firmly in a cognitive approach to information science. Information overload appears to be a bigger problem today than ever before in history but it is certainly not a new issue. In his article 'Perspectives on information overload' David Bawden refers to a passage from Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament that reads "of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh' (249). The development of the book, serials and, most recently, computers all contribute to the ever-increasing proliferation of information. Librarians appeared to consider their role in dealing with this issue before information scientists, as indicated by Ortega Y Gasset's 1934 concern about the librarian's role as a filter "between the user and torrent of books" (Baker, 318). It didn't take long for information scientists to share his concern as reflected in a quote from J.E. Holmston, cited by Bawden, in which Holmston refers to the "torrents and rivers of current literature" and the need for "techniques of controlled selectiveness" to supply scientist's needs (Bawden, 240). Other literature addresses the general development of information overload by looking to the dramatic increase in information during the industrial revolution (Stanley and Clipsham, 1) and the emergence of the information society as a concept that materialized during the 60s to describe the development of an economy with information production at its center (Tidline, 494). Information science literature makes up what it lacks in historical perspective on information overload with a variety of definitions of the concept. Stanley and Clipsham define it as "when a person is feeling overwhelmed by the quantity of information they have to deal with at work" (Stanley and Clipsham, 2) . Kreitzberg suggests it "occurs when too much information is presented for an individual to process meaningfully" (Kreitzberg, 167). Baker, basing her definition on research from the field of cognitive psychology, writes that "it occurs when a person's capacity for processing information is exceeded; the strain of handling too much data interferes with the individual's decision-making process" (Baker, 316). Bawden offers the following: "Information overload occurs when information received becomes a hindrance rather than a help when the information is potentially useful" (Bawden, 249). This definition, as well as Baker's, is appealing because it brings the concept of relevance into the root of the issue. Relevance is "a measure of the effectiveness of a contact between a source and a destination in a communication process" according to Saracevic (Saracevic, 325). It can be concluded that the communication ceases to be effective when overload occurs. Information overload's relation to relevance is further supported by the pragmatic view of relevance that asserts that the true role of an I.R. system "is to provide information that has utility--information that helps to directly resolve given problems" (Saracevic, 334). The information scientist's desire to ensure this type of relevance could be one reason why the problem of information overload is such a concern to this discipline. The cause to which most people attribute information overload is the increase in information and especially new technology. The Internet and electronic mail do contribute to the problem, according to a report created for Reuters in 1996 on the effects of information overload. The report suggests that business trends such as globalization, downsizing and general increase in business communications, along with the increase in ways to communicate, including fax, voice-mail, e-mail, Internet, online conferencing in addition to the tradition methods, all contribute to the problem of overload (Waddington). To further support this idea are statistics such as "a weekly edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England" and "the English language of the late twentieth century contains about 50,000 words, five times more than in Shakespeare's lifetime" (stats by Shuman as quoted in Bawden, 251). But Bawden suggests that the cause of information overload is not so simple and there are many more variables, which is supported by the literature. Diversity of information contributes to overload (Bawden, 252). Research by Iselin supports this theory by finding that an increase in information diversity (meaning different dimensions of information in a cue) resulted in an increase in decision time (Iselin, 163). Hwang and Lin had similar results with their study on the affects of information overload and information dimension on decisions quality. They found that both information diversity and information repetitiveness increased the impact of information overload by negatively affecting decision quality. (Hwang and Lin, 231). Bawden also suggests that information overload may be "caused as a result of the nature of the work being carried out by the user" and gives interdisciplinary research as an example (Bawden, 252). This is supported by Wilson's argument that an interdisciplinary scholar's need to stay current in more than one field, along with the quantity of data encountered in interdisciplinary research projects, is "far beyond the capacity of any individual to absorb and use--in a word overload" (Wilson, 193-195). Another cause of overload suggested by Bawden is increased access to information sources and the increase in end-user searching as opposed to intermediary searching on behalf of the end-user (Bawden, 252). Wiberley and Daugherty consider this factor in their work on user's persistence in scanning reference lists, especially when it comes to OPACs where the end-user often does her own search. They found the user's likelihood to persist in seeking information directly related to the type of seeking being done and whether it was compulsory or discretionary (Wiberley and Daugherty, 149-50). Baker is concerned with a similar cause of overload, namely library patrons becoming overloaded by a selection of books when browsing for "a good book to read," (which could be considered a discretionary seeking activity) (Baker, 315). There is a deeper cause of information overload, however, for the quantity, variety and repetitiveness of the information would be irrelevant if the user were able to process anything that came her way. Bawden touches on this when he suggests that our senses aren't equipped to deal with the modern information environment (Bawden, 251). This is also the second part of most information overload definitions. The reality is that human cognitive-capacity is the deeper explanation for this problem. It is when this capacity is exceeded (as Baker refers to in her definition of information overload) that symptoms, such as feeling overwhelmed, out of control and losing the ability to meaningfully process information, occur. Usually the brain utilizes a process called selective attention that allows an individual to receive and sift through large amounts of environmental data, but this process becomes taxed when the information requires greater processing (Kreitzberg, 170). We know cognitive ability is influenced by many factors, which explains why some people don't experience overload to the same extent as others. For example, a study of scientist in a pharmaceutical research organization found that of the 43% who did not feel they were suffering from information overload, most agreed that is was not because they weren't dealing with too much information, but rather because they had learned to cope (Bawden, 250). It is based on the premise that some information professionals are skeptical about the reality of information overload. Bawden refers to studies that found that the effects overload diminish with time or were never really that big of a problem (Bawden, 251). Perhaps as individuals become familiar with the information they are processing, cognitive load decreases. The literature surveyed for this article mentioned several methods individuals use to cope including tuning out peripheral stimuli, grouping information into categories, relying on past experience and simply ignoring large amounts of information (Baker, 317). User may abandon searches, especially if the information being sought is discretionary (Wiberley and Daugherty, 154) or limit their scope, in the case of academics specializing rather than pursuing interdisciplinary work (Wilson, 193). Tidline takes the idea that it's all in our heads, so to speak, the furthest with her theory that information overload is a myth created by our society to "provide a common understanding" and justify strategies used to deal with a world of information that seems beyond the individual's control (Tidline, 501). Tidline claims that her use of myth is not to say that information overload does not exist, but rather that its existence is not substantiated with empirical evidence, only with anecdotes and associated symptoms (Tidline, 486). Interestingly, the characteristics of a myth or folktale outline by Tidline are remarkably similar to the characteristics of a paradigm, such as acting as a defining framework to move through life, and being influenced by the economic, political and social structures of the society. Myths and folktales are also said to "serve to legitimize the existing order or be created to challenge that order" very much like a paradigm acts to maintain a status quo or shift the boundaries. So it seems fair to follow Tidline's theory into yet another theory that information overload is part of the current paradigm surrounding our culture's understanding of information. Cognitive overload (or the perception of it) manifests in many ways. The impacts on decision-making quality were addressed earlier in Iselin and Hwang and Lin's research. Of the coping methods mentioned above, ignoring large amounts of information is the most disturbing to an information scientist. It means huge amounts of relevant information will not be used, a concern shared by Wilson (193). There are more dramatic results to be considered as well. The Reuters study of managers found considerable costs to humans as well as business. Sixty-one percent of the managers surveyed said the they canceled social activities as a result of information overload, forty-two percent attributed ill-health to information related stress and forty-five percent claimed that decisions were delayed (Waddington). Not to disappoint Tidline, there are also anecdotes dealing with the negative effects of information overload such as the case of an employee who spent so much time analyzing financial information it led to panic attacks and then to depression and physical pain (Stanley and Clipsham, 2). In another case an I.T. manager became physically ill trying to keep up with all the product information in his field, finally being advised by his doctor to take a break (Stanley and Clipsham, 2). Solutions to the problem of information overload seem to fall into two general categories, one is the user category that suggests changes to the individual and the other is the technology category that looks to make improvements in systems that will help the user exert more control over the information. In the first category is Wilson's suggestion that teamwork can lessen some of the effects of formation overload. Information literacy also falls into this category by teaching effective selection, evaluation and use as a way to improve the individual's ability to deal with large amounts of information. Educating the user on how to best select, evaluate and use information could give her a better capacity to face and control the overload (Bawden, 253). Basic personal management approaches are suggested as well, such as deleting unread e-mail, setting goals and being selective about joining newsgroups and list-serves (Bawden, 253). In the technology category falls a variety of innovations. A company called Cognetics Corporation had developed a product based on the assumptions that information must be meaningful to the learner, must be presented in just the right amount and more details must be available on demand. The result is a hypertext system of links imbedded into layers of text that present the most basic information to the user first allowing her to follow the hyperlink for more detail as desired (Kreitzberg, 171-172). More general tools include web-based agents and filters that can be programmed by the user to 'manage' incoming information. Jan Davis Tudor of Online magazine tested three such tools and found all of them to be helpful to some extent. She did find that she still got irrelevant information (irrelevant meaning that the results didn't contain her search terms) and duplicate results (Davis Tudor, 52). Some of the helpful features were relevancy-ranking, summaries, the time saved by not having to repeatedly execute the searches herself, and their ease of use. She did offer suggestions that fall into the user category of solutions such as using Boolean operators, considering how much information one really needs and adjusting the tool's settings after learning what works best (Davis Tudor, 52-56). A user can also benefit from just learning how to properly use their current technologies. For example, most e-mail programs offer filtering and preprogrammed organizational functions and most search engines offer an advanced search and some sort of advice on narrowing searches. Despite the hopes for technology to save the world from information overload, we are advised to proceed with caution. The Reuters study concludes that "technologies for managing information are often the problem, not the solution" (Waddington). Technology can provide a short-term solution but underlying issues should be considered if long-term solutions are to be found (Stanley and Clipsham 3-4). Based on the cognitive viewpoint that states of knowledge and belief mediate that which users receive and perceive (Belkin, 12), future work in the area of information overload should continue to seek understanding of the underlying causes as well as how the user's perceptions affect proposed solutions. Profit is a large motivator in this area of research as there is a potential loss of profits (Iselin, 171) and companies need to find a return on their information technology investments (Waddington). It is likely that the greatest developments in dealing with information overload will come from the commercial world as they seem to have the most to gain as well as the most to lose. Information is often referred to as power and as human beings we are often greedy and seek out more and more power. This may be another reason why individuals create their own information overload nightmares, so to speak--we are gluttons for this exciting new commodity. This is where information literacy can play a role, by giving end-users a knowledge base that has only been required by a select few up until now. Information overload will undoubtedly continue to be a part of our paradigm well into the future, however as humans gain the cognitive skills and systems developers continue to work to consider the cognitive viewpoint of the user, the negative affects should decrease and a society of individuals who can cope with the overload will emerge. Baker, S.L. (1986) Overload, browsers, and selections. Library and Information Science Research 8 (4): 315-329. Bawden, D. (1999) Perspectives on information overload. Aslib Proceedings 51 (8): 249-255. Belkin, N. (1990) The cognitive viewpoint in information science. Journal of Information Science 16: 11-15. Davis Tudor, J. (1997) The new alchemy: Using droids and agents to tread information overload. Online 21:50-58. Hwang, M.I. and Lin, J.W. (1999) Information dimensions, information overload and decision quality. Journal of Information Science 25 (3): 213-218. Iselin, E. (1989) The impact of information diversity on information overload effects in unstructured managerial decision making. Journal of Information Science 15 (3): 163-173. Kreitzberg, C. (1991) Details on demand: Hypertext models for coping with information overload. In Dillon, M. (ed.) Interfaces for information retrieval and online systems. New York, Greenwood Press: 169-185. Saracevic, T. (1975) Relevance: A review of and framework for the thinking on the notion in information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science (26): 321-343. Stanley, A.J. and Clipsham, P.S. (1997) Information overload -- myth or reality? IEEE Colloquium on IT Strategies for Information Overload (Digest No. 1997/340): 1-4. Tidline, T.J. (1999) The mythology of information overload. Library Trends 47 (3): 485-506. Wiberley, S.E. and Daugherty, R.A. (1988). Users' persistence in scanning lists of references. College & Research Libraries 50: 149-156. Waddington, P. (1997) Dying for information? A report on the effects of information overload in the UK and worldwide. British Library Research and Innovation Report 78. Sourced online at http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/bl/blri078/content/repor~13.htm on March 5, 2000. Wilson, P. (1996) Interdisciplinary research and information overload. Library Trends 45: 192-203.
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Copyright © 2001 Pamela Green |
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