Information overload is an interesting concept, and incredibly
relevant as we embark careers as information professionals. I think we will be
tasked with combating issues like how to reduce information overload, and how
do we teach people to navigate in nets and tangles of difference pieces of
information. Perhaps more importantly, how do we ensure that the right
information is communicated effectively to people? What I find especially
interesting is how the prevalence of the Internet, search engines, and social
media influencing the ability of people to seek information effectively, and
not get bogged down by the overabundance. Social media, in particular, provides
a constant stream of new information.
Most social media platforms provide a feed or discovery function, where
users can scroll through different posts. With the rise of digital protesting,
and general awareness around various social justice issues, these feeds can
become endless posts of news articles and coverage of different hot topics. The
question then becomes, does this endless stream contribute to information
overload? Or, does the built in necessity to condense articles into quick and
witty posts actually allow users to get more pieces of unique information?
Research Question:
Does the prevalent use of new technologies (e.g. social
media, Internet, search engines) aid people in navigating the information
realm, or do they increase the scope of information overload?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a great direction to take your research Ling. It would be beneficial to try and get to the heart of whether these feeds actually hurt or help us in navigating to the information we need. For me personally, I find that these new technologies would be more useful with the addition of more effective, intelligent filters. For now, it helps to have a skill for picking out the most interesting and substantive posts quickly, as one can easily get lost in the useless, mundane, and unnecessary posts which proliferate social media today.
ReplyDeleteEven the task of picking out interesting/substantive posts is becoming difficult, as people face a plethora of challenges while trying to do that. How common is it now to have false headlines on articles and posts, because they (authors, advertisers, etc) know that it'll draw people in and make them click it? How many of us now find it a nuisance when we realize we have to read an *entire* article to get the information we're looking for, because it's not at the beginning or organized in a simple list? Part of me feels as though, without even realizing it, we've become much worse at seeking information.
Delete