Information Overload

Parsons (2010) illustrates information as: "No one ever tells you how dangerous this stuff can be: they just go on pumping it out, hour after hour, day after day. You're consuming it right now, without a clue about the possible consequences. The worst thing is, evolution has predisposed your brain to crave it as much as your body craves fat and sugar. And these days - as with fat and sugar - you can get it everywhere". (Information Overload section, para. 2)

He questions if the information overload brought primarily because of the Internet brings unanticipated dangers: “The human craving for information makes censorship a particularly problematic response to any perceived information hazard, and openness is often the preferred option.”

Bawden and Robinson (2009) state that: [...] there is no single generally accepted definition of information overload. The term is usually taken to represent a state of affairs where an individual's efficiency in using information in their work is hampered by the amount of relevant, and potentially useful, information available to them (p. 4).

In a Web 2.0 social networked world, we are challenged by an increased information overload because these social networks allow us to multiply information exponentially due to their ease of use and their possibilities. The features allowing user created content and reblogging are many, for example: “mashing-up” of content, real time comments and modifications.

At this moment, the production of content has switched from cultural, business or academic organizations and enterprises to the broad public with access to an Internet connection. The term produsers has started to appear in the literature; Produsage.org (2007) defines produsage as when “users occupy a hybrid position of being both users and what in traditional terms would have to be described loosely as producers.” This idea of the produsers is not new, Toffler (1980) coined the term prosumer to express a situation when on his Third Wave the roles of consumers and producers would merge, as a result of the need of highly customizable products which will call users to take part in the production processes adding value to goods and services or creating them. Such is the case of Amazon, which allows customer ratings and reviews of products.

It is relevant to investigate how users are coping with information overload in social networks, to see if they are taking any actions about it or are just giving up because of the large amounts of information they are receiving from their friends’ feeds.