We are now exposed daily to more information than we can process, and this has substantial costs. We argue that the information space should be recognized as part of our environment and call for research into the effects and management of information overload.
We are all aware of the dangers of pollution to our air, water, and land. In a recently published letter in Nature Human Behavior, scientists advocate for the recognition and mitigation of another type of environmental pollution that poses equivalent personal and social dangers: information overload.
With the internet at our fingertips through smartphones, we are exposed to an unprecedented amount of data, far beyond our capacity to process it. The result is an inability to assess information and make decisions. Additionally, it can lead us to limit our social activities, feel dissatisfied with our work, become demotivated, and, in general, feel negative. Economists estimate that all this has a global cost of around $1 trillion. Besides emotional and cognitive effects, contextual and environmental considerations can increase personal and economic costs.
The idea of exploring information overload was incubated at a meeting of an international group of scientists two years ago, all of whom received support from an EU grant for international collaboration. The EU team selected overseas partners, including, for the third time, the Network Science and Technology Center (NeST) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, led by Dr. Boleslaw Szymanski, a professor of computer science in the United States.
The researchers compare information overload to other historical changes in society: open publication created the need to filter low-quality research from the vast number of accessible publications, the Industrial Revolution led to air pollution, and environmental activists helped drive legalization and economic changes to curb pollution. Similarly, it is necessary to address the so-called “information pollution” or “data smog.”
Through the lens of computer science, there are at least three levels of information overload: “neuronal and cognitive mechanisms at the individual level… information and decisions at the group level… (and) social interactions between individuals, groups, and information providers at the social level.” These levels do not operate independently, so the flow of information can be treated as a multi-level network with nodes, which may result in an abrupt change. Researchers cite teamwork as an example: the information overload of one team member can hinder group performance. It is a complex problem.
“We call for action in science, education, and legislation,” stated Szymanski. “We need more interdisciplinary research on information overload. Information ecology should be taught in schools. We also need to initiate a conversation about legislative possibilities, similar to the Clean Air Act in the UK decades ago.”
“Information overload can have serious implications,” said Curt Breneman, Ph.D., dean of the Rensselaer School of Science. “It starts by eroding our emotional health, job performance, and satisfaction, subsequently influencing the actions of groups, and ultimately entire societies. I hope that Dr. Szymanski’s letter, written with colleagues from around the world, raises public awareness of the problem and allows for solutions to be studied and implemented.”
Szymanski was joined in writing the letter by Janusz A. Hołyst of Warsaw University of Technology, the principal investigator of the EU grant; Philipp Mayr of the Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences; Michael Thelwall from the University of Sheffield; Ingo Frommholz from the University of Wolverhampton; Shlomo Havlin and Alon Sela from Bar-Ilan University; Yoed N. Kenett from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Denis Helic from Modul University Vienna; Aljoša Rehar and Sebastijan R. Maček from the Slovenian Press Agency; Przemysław Kazienko and Tomasz Kajdanowicz from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology; Przemysław Biecek from the University of Warsaw; and Julian Sienkiewicz from Warsaw University of Technology.
