Times of Malta: Too much information

Too much information

Sunday, October 18, 2015

In the last 50 years, we have produced more information than in the previous 5,000 years. But can we understand all of it, Marc Kosciejew asks.

It seems, even feels, as though we are overloaded with information. There seems to be so much of the stuff around. We seem, and in many cases are, obsessed with information, wanting, needing, demanding and expecting more of it for diverse activities and purposes. We have come to expect access to any kind of information, anywhere and at any time.

We constantly produce, record, store, consume, purchase, and share information, from the most important, substantive and serious, to the most trivial, petty and mundane. We are consequently surrounded by information in every sphere of personal, private, and public life and seemingly inundated with it at all times, from all directions, and in all places.

It is said that there has been more information, and more diverse kinds of information, produced in the last 50 years than during the previous 5,000 years. In 2003, for instance, the prestigious School of Information Management and Systems at Berkeley, US, estimated that humanity had accumulated approximately 12 exabytes of data in the course of its entire history until the advent of modern computers. To put this huge number into perspective, consider that one exa is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting 1018. To put differently, it’s a 50,000-year-long DVD.

The Berkeley researchers also calculated that print, film, magnetic, and optical storage media had already produced more than five exabytes of data in 2002 alone. This number is staggering for a one-year period, considering that it represents nearly half of all the data humanity had accumulated in the previous thousands of years. To put five exabytes into perspective, it is equivalent to 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress in Washington, US. Further, between 2006 and 2010, the global quantity of digital data (excluding analogue and print data) increased from a whopping 161 exabytes to a mind-boggling 988 exabytes.

These numbers are steadily and inexorably growing every day. As humanity approaches the age of the zettabyte (1,000 exabytes), it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

This inundation of, and obsession with, information is resulting in a dramatic surfeit of information. The phenomenon of excessive information is also referred to as information overload, infoglut, infobesity, or simply, as too much information. Exaflood is a term that is used to describe just the tsunami of digital information that is submerging us. Taking into account all diverse kinds of information, there seems to be a continually rising, churning information flood, or what The Economist describes as a data deluge. This information is helping generate a sensation of drowning. According to The Economist, “Everywhere you look, the quantity of information in the world is soaring. Merely keeping up with this flood, and storing the bits that might be useful, is difficult enough. Analysing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still.”

Yet ironically, as we create, crave, and expect access to more information, we also increasingly feel as though we are submerged in a tumultuous sea beyond our control or comprehension.

There are historical echoes of information overload. For instance, criticisms and complaints of too much information are found in the ancient world. In the first century AD, Seneca the Elder commented that, “The abundance of books is distraction”. In Ecclesiastes 12:12, it is observed that, “Of making books there is no end.”

Gutenberg’s printing press accelerated the expansion of book and document production and the accompanying feelings of being overwhelmed. Books and documents were produced, circulated, accumulated, and consumed cheaply, in unprecedented numbers to the point that Erasmus asked, “Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books?” According to the philosopher Denis Diderot, “As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes.”

But what exactly is information overload? What is this data deluge that seems to be drowning us? Is there such a thing as having too much information? Is more information necessary and helpful or unnecessary and harmful? Since it may only take one or two pages of Google results to overwhelm the average searcher, does it matter whether or not there are hundreds or thousands of more pages after those two?

"An information diet is not about consuming less but instead consuming quality information from original, primary and respected sources"

There are some psychological and sociological studies that demonstrate how information overload can contaminate judgement. More information is usually helpful at first, but as it increases, information becomes more unhelpful. As it grows further, it actually becomes a hindrance.

There can be negative effects on mind and body when you feel overloaded with information. Information overload can exacerbate psychological issues like anxiety, stress, attention deficit disorder, worry, and depression. It can also create or contribute to various physical problems like blurred vision, headaches, and painful joint, back, shoulder, and wrist issues.

Moreover, individuals can only absorb and process so much information at any given time. Information overload can thus negatively impact cognitive capabilities. In The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (Atlantic Books, 2011), technology writer Nicholas Carr explores how information overload distracts and interrupts, forcing us to scan and skim, thereby diminishing important cognitive abilities such as attentiveness, concentration, reflection, and memory. Carr argues that we are losing our abilities to pay close attention and concentrate over a prolonged periods of time, whether reading a book or engaging in conversation, without being constantly distracted, usually by the internet and some information communication technology. This turns us into superficial thinkers.

The internet and information communication technologies foster compulsive behaviours and habits like constant checking, consulting and refreshing of online information. These compulsions ultimately undermine cognitive consolidation, that is, the transfer of information from short-term or working memory to long-term memory. This transference is crucial to the creation of connections between all the information in your mind. But as this transference is increasingly distracted and interrupted, cognitive consolidation is disrupted. As we train our brains to take in more information, very quickly and in fragmented ways, we strengthen the parts of the brain that are good at multitasking, yet weaken the parts of the brain involved in cognitive consolidation. This weakening is an alarming prospect considering that cognitive consolidation involves some of our most important thought processes, such as long-term memory, contemplation, conceptual knowledge, critical thinking, and reflection.

How can we cope with information overload?

Coping mechanisms for handling and navigating too much information have not significantly changed from ancient civilisations to the present. Whether it is traditional information tools like bibliographies or indexes, or digital ones like search engines and wikis, they all share the same principles of searching, selecting, summarising, sorting, and storing, coupled with human attention and analysis to guide the information-seeking process. These principles are the fundamental concerns and practices of librarianship, archival work, and records and information management. These are enduring professions dedicated to the navigation, organisation, and presentation of information, helping us control and make sense of the information flood. They remain essential in helping to control and understand both information and its surfeit.

A personal way to cope with information overload involves a kind of diet. In The Information Diet (O’Reilly Media, 2012), Johnson compares information overload to a diet. He states that, “We know we’re products of the food we eat. Why wouldn’t we also be products of the information we consume?” Johnson argues that people tend to consume information confirm their biases or that they find interesting, in a similar way that they would prefer to eat their favourite dishes, eat desert before dinner, or choose junk food instead of healthier options. Just as too much dessert or junk food can lead to health problems such as obesity, junk information can lead to intellectual stunting like ignorance.

Johnson argues that it is not information overload that is problematic, but instead our bad consumption habits. “Ask any nutritionist, and they’ll tell you that a diet isn’t about not eating – it’s about changing your consumption habits,” Johnson adds. He proposes that instead of stressing over too much information, we need to adopt a healthy and balanced information diet. A diet does not mean you stop eating but instead consume nutritious foods. Similarly, an information diet is not about consuming less but instead consuming quality information from original, primary and respected sources.

Johnson prescribes discipline in how we consume information. It is not enough to unplug the computer, turn off the television, avoid social media, disconnect from the internet, or ignore the news. These are only superficial coping mechanisms. We need real and sustainable changes to our actual information-seeking habits. For instance, simultaneous distractions, like constant alerts and notifications, should be eliminated. They pull attention away from present tasks, fragment concentration, and reinforce more bad behaviour of compulsive checking, rechecking and scanning. Or, as another example, using smartphones as alarm clocks should be stopped in order to prevent people from becoming immediately drawn into them upon awakening.

“Information obesity isn’t new. Just as it was possible to be obese 500 years ago, it was possible to experience this new kind of ignorance 500 years ago, too. It was just more expensive, and you had to work much harder for it. But now we’re living in a world of abundance,” Johnson reminds us. We continue to need many enduring information practices and tools that have not changed in fundamental ways since their invention, even though most have been updated to adapt to contemporary technological developments.

Perhaps we need to go on an information diet. Johnson argues that, “There always has been more human knowledge and experience than any one human could absorb. It’s not the total amount of information, but your information habit that is pushing you to whatever extreme you find uncomfortable.”

Perhaps it is not information overload that overwhelms us but instead our bad information consumption habits. Perhaps we need to adopt more healthy ways of coping with information. We can look to libraries and archives on successful strategies to deal with information. We need to remember and reaffirm the enduring importance of libraries and archives in the organisation, management, and storage of information. Indeed, libraries and archives of all stripes are information Noah’s Arks that have always helped us navigate information floods and remain crucial in doing so today.

It is important that we recognise and acknowledge part of our own complicity in information’s continual rise. We must come to terms with our obsession with information. We want more, we need more, we expect more, we demand more, we accumulate more, and consequently, we become overloaded with, or submerged in, more information. If we adopt a balanced information diet, and learn important lessons and seek vital guidance from libraries and archives, we will better understand how to manage and deal with information overload.

Marc Kosciejew is head of department and lecturer in the Department of Library Information and Archive Sciences in the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta.

From: Times of Malta