Information Overload

Since the beginning of time, information has always been considered a good thing, a means to grow, and a way to develop and sustain culture. In the past, information had often been considered scarce, and truly a privilege to have. Now, information is being produced and received at a rapid rate. Humans cannot process as much information as the amount continuously flowing in. We are in a state of information surplus, an era of information overload. According to Lehtonen, information discrepancy is the “deficit that arises when we reach our processing limits, but more information continues to stream in.” Having a finite amount of cognitive resources available for any given task, humans are limited capacity processors. Studies have proven that people can only hold seven bits of information at any given time. Therefore, as more people are becoming classified as “active users” in the digital age, overload occurs when a message is more complex than one can remember. In Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer, he predicted a time in which we now live. A time of Nerve Attenuation Syndrome, The Black Shakes, information overload. With the help of the internet, information being produced and consumed is perpetually increasing. Besides the growing use of the internet, there are many other causes of information overload. Firstly, the means by which information is received is continuously increasing as technology advances. People can receive information via telephone, e-mail, instant message, and more. As new information is discovered, people are always updated, and constantly informed about it. Thus, as we increase our knowledge, we often find ourselves digging through thousands of years worth of historical content as well. In addition, many sources are unreliable; contradictions and inaccuracies in available information cause information discrepancy and further the overload. Time is taken to review each source, and intake more information. However, even if both