The dark side of information: overload, anxiety and other paradoxes and pathologies

By David Bawden, Lyn Robinson. Journal of information science, 2009

1,276 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This review article identifies and discusses some of main issues and potential problems — paradoxes and pathologies — around the communication of recorded information, and points to some possible solutions. The article considers the changing contexts of information communication, with some caveats about the identification of `pathologies of information', and analyses the changes over time in the way in which issues of the quantity and quality of information available have been regarded. Two main classes of problems and issues are discussed. The first comprises issues relating to the quantity and diversity of information available: information overload, information anxiety, etc. The second comprises issues relating to the changing information environment with the advent of Web 2.0: loss of identity and authority, emphasis on micro-chunking and shallow novelty, and the impermanence of information. A final section proposes some means of solution of problems and of improvements to the situation.

Subfields: Information Systems, Information Systems and Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0d22571135a4cae770ce86c7fe5ec46a3feb0a75

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Information Systems

1. Anne Suphan
2. Eliane Bucher
3. Christian Fieseler

In Information Systems and Management

1. Nainan Wen
2. Xinlin Yao
3. Shijie Song
4. Chang Sup Park

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Nainan Wen
2. Anne Suphan
3. Eliane Bucher
4. Xinlin Yao
5. Christian Fieseler
6. Shijie Song
7. C. Daugbjerg
8. Chang Sup Park

Citations in the corpus

• Improving Eco-labelling as an Environmental Policy Instrument: Knowledge, Trust and Organic Consumption (2014, background): “The literature shows clearly that information overload and negative attitudes might prevent consumers from acquiring and processing new information (for a review see Verbeke, 2005, for newer references see e.g. Bawden & Robinson, 2009; Smed & Andersen, 2012).”
• The stress potential of social media in the workplace (2013, background): “As the volume of relevant or potentially useful information increases, the limits of professionals’ filtering and processing capacities become evident (Himma 2007; Bawden & Robinson 2008; Shirky 2008; Koroleva et al. 2010).”
• Perceived News Overload and Its Cognitive and Attitudinal Consequences for News Usage in South Korea (2017, background): “Previous studies have found that massive amounts of information can be distracting and negatively impact productivity and decision making (Bawden & Robinson, 2009; Hemp, 2009; Jacoby, 1984).”
• Quantifying Information Overload in Social Media and Its Impact on Social Contagions (2014, neutral): “1998), or information systems (Bawden and Robinson 2009).”
• What motivates Chinese consumers to avoid information about the COVID-19 pandemic?: The perspective of the stimulus-organism-response model (2020, background): “However, when the avoided information is relevant and useful to those who avoid it, avoidance may generate negative consequences (Bawden & Robinson, 2009).”