Responses from:
AI Overview:
Information overload syndrome is a state where an individual’s cognitive processing capacity is exceeded by the excessive amount of incoming information, leading to symptoms like confusion, stress, and decision paralysis.
Yuval Hararri
Best Selling Author
“Believing that more information is always good is like believing that more food is always good. We should be careful with what we put in our mind, not just our body – is it time for an information diet?”
And
National Institute of Health article:
(Information overload syndrome: a bibliographic review)
Nov 16, 2021 Information overload is the situation in which thr amount or intensity of information exceeds the individual’s limited capacity for cognitive processing.
The following NIH bibliographic review is available for those needing more information…
L E Parra-Medina 1, F J Álvarez-Cervera 1
Abstract in English, Spanish
Introduction: We are living in the time of greatest dissemination of information in the history of the human race, and this excess of information has resulted in considering human attention as a scarce resource. Information overload is the situation in which the amount or intensity of information exceeds the individual’s limited capacity for cognitive processing.
Objective: To describe the concept of information overload, its possible neurocognitive substrates, associated symptoms, causes, measures to avoid it, as well as its possible relationship with the internet and electronic devices.
Development: People respond differently to information overload, and this depends on individual factors as well as on the amount and characteristics of the informative stimulation. Some symptoms of information overload are: inefficient work, confusion, delay in making decisions, lack of critical evaluation of information, loss of control over information, refusal to receive communication, lack of general perspective, greater tolerance for error, anxiety, stress, etc. The limits of information processing capacity are probably conditioned by the limited metabolic energy that is distributed in the brain and remains constant regardless of the difficulty of the tasks.
Conclusion: Attention is a limited cognitive function. In order to reduce the adverse effects of information overload, it is necessary to improve the personal management of our own cognitive resources and to understand their relationship with technology. Likewise, it is necessary to improve the handling of information through the organization, filtering and application of cognitive ergonomics design guidelines.
(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
(Contributed by Hanz Bolen,, H.W., M.)