50 Philosophy and Progress Philosophy and Progress: Vols. LV-LVI, January-June, July-December, 2014 Introduction ISSN 1607-2278 (Print), DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/pp.v55i1-2.26390 Although many of us tend to view ‘information overload’ as a new phenomenon, the term, in fact, has been in existence for more than 50 years; and even before that, people were concerned about the growing volume of information that they had to cope with in their everyday life. A report published in 1963 by the U.S. President’s Scientific Advisory Committee stated, ‘We shall cope with the information explosion, in the long run, only if some scientists are prepared to commit INFORMATION OVERLOAD: CAUSES, themselves to the job of sifting, reviewing, and synthesizing information; i.e. to handling information with sophistication CONSEQUENCES AND REMEDIES: A STUDY and meaning, not merely mechanically.’1 The world henceforth has seen exponential growth in the number of information * Kazi Mostak Gausul Hoq materials in various forms, which has been further accelerated by unprecedented advancements in Information and Communication Technologies. Although there have been Abstract systematic efforts by the libraries and information science Information overload, usually characterized by an over abundance of (LIS) professionals and computer scientists to cope with this information, is a major cause of concern for general information huge proliferation of information through various means of users, researchers and information managers. With the advent of new bibliographic control and information management and technological innovations, the rate of information production has retrieval techniques, no sure success way has been found with accelerated rapidly. Consequently, people are suffering from an which to tackle this growing from of information overload. ‘information glut’, which makes it difficult for them to find the With massive advancements in research and development in required information quickly and conveniently from various print, almost every country in the world, we are poised to face an electronic and online sources. The paper analyzed the causes and even greater explosion of information in the coming decades. causes of information overload in the 21st century and puts forward suggestions for overcoming this problem. It stresses the importance Information overload: natures and significance of concerted efforts from information professionals, computer scientists and academics to devise techniques and technologies for Creation of new ideas necessitates the documentation of those countering the effects of information overload. ideas. People have been recording their thoughts and actions and expressions in numerous ways since time immemorial. With the spread of literacy and invention of new methods of * Associate Professor, Department of Information Science and recording ones thoughts and ideas, the body of knowledge Library Management, University of Dhaka, created and accumulated by human beings started to expand. Email: [email protected] Information Overload: Causes, Consequences and Remedies: A Study 51 52 Philosophy and Progress Slowly, this started putting pressure on people’s limited ‘Because of information, we understand more about how to resources and time. In as early as 1255, Dominican Vincent of overcome the basic challenges of life. Food is more abundant. Buauvais was found to be deploring about ‘the multitude of Our physicals structures are sturdier, more reliable. Our books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory’.2 societies are more stable, as we have learned how to make In the 15th century, with the invention of movable printing political systems function. Our citizens are freer, thanks to a machine, book production rapidly increased and the cost of wide dissemination of information that has empowered the books also substantially decreased. The European Renaissance individual.’6 However, with too much information, comes too heralded widespread appreciation of knowledge and the spread much tasks – tasks of sifting through this ever increasing body of learning for the masses. The founding of the first truly of information to find out the information we need. And in public library in England in 1598 facilitated diffusion of today’s hectic life, people have less and less time to do that. information and knowledge for a larger audience.3 The This is making information overload a problem whose intensity industrial revolution and various innovations in the 18th and is increasing every day. th 19 centuries generated a huge body of knowledge which was Alvin Toffler popularised the term ‘information overload’ in used as building blocks for social, economic and cultural th the 1970s. He characterised it as ‘the difficulty a person faces progresses made in the 20 century. Great advances in when taking a decision in the presence of excessive computer technology in the mid-twentieth century and 7 information.’ In general parlance, information overload refers subsequently, the emergence of Internet World Wide Web have to a situation when the information user fails to process any made our world truly information-driven. As Feather noted, more information because of its enormity in size and volume. ‘The technical developments of the last 50 years have made Edmunds and Morris define information overload as an more information, more available to more people than at any ‘overabundance of relevant information that cannot be other time in human history.’4 The transition of the developed assimilated, or being burdened with large quantities of countries from the industrial age to information age has been 8 unsolicited information (which may be beneficial).’ Mayer dubbed by the renowned writer and futurist Alvin Toffler as a views information overload as a ‘state that exceeds the limited transition from the ‘Second wave’ to the ‘Third Wave’, the 9 human information-processing capacity.’ Bawden, Holtham First Wave being the Agricultural Revolution in the prehistoric and Courtney observed that, information overload is ‘usually times.5 taken to represent a state of affairs where an individual’s In the middle ages, the spread of literacy and new innovations efficiency in using information in their work is hampered by in publishing played a pivotal role in helping us to realize the the amount of relevant, and potentially useful, information value of ‘information’. People realized that, information would available to them.’10 Information overload has been linked with help them make better choices and take better decisions. As the information processing ability of information users. With time passed, this realization grew into a firm conviction, little or no information, individuals have little or nothing to resulting in the central role information is now playing in process and consequently make poor decisions. As the amount driving the human civilization forward. As David Shenk noted, of information increases, so too does information processing Information Overload: Causes, Consequences and Remedies: A Study 53 54 Philosophy and Progress and the quality of decision-making. However, after a certain over abundance of information from myriad sources in point is reached, the decision-maker has obtained more response to online searches, which causes time constraints for information than he can process, information overload has the information users to scan all these information. With the occurred and decision-making ability decreases. Any advent of new publishing media, especially the online ones, information received beyond that point will not be processed, there is too much information generating from a multiple may lead to confusion and could have a negative impact on the sources which is one of main causes of information overload. individual’s ability to set priorities as well as remember This puts increasing pressure on information users who have previous information.’11 Eppler and Menjis have identified five very limited time to find, locate, retrieve and assess reasons of information overload which are shown in the information from all these various sources. The problem is following diagram12: exacerbated by the fact that, relevant information is far outnumbered by irrelevant and unimportant information constantly piling up in various media, especially electronic Difficult to media like television, web sites, blogs, social networking sites, manage email, etc. Besides, majority of people lack adequate information Irrelevance or Too much unimportance information literacy skills, i.e. the skills of identifying information of information information needs, locating required information in appropriate sources, retrieving information in the right format, assessing the worth of retrieved information in context of his/her needs and, lastly, using the retrieved information for meeting his/her Multiple Causes of Lack of time to needs. As a result, the information explosion is happening sources of information understand unabated and people are facing more and more problem in information information overload dealing with these information. Another unique feature of information overload is that, it has a number of dimensions. The number of information materials and media are increasing, with new techniques and approaches of presenting information Diagram: Causes of information overload to a multitude of audience. As Gantz, Boyd and Dowling note, The diagram shows that, information overload is usually information overload is not just about the growing