What Is Information Overload?

Have you ever started something new - a new job, a new sport, even a new game and you are trying to learn the information and it feels like your brain might explode? That is an exaggerated symptom of information overload. But, most people are experiencing it daily from normal life due to fast access to information via the internet.

Understanding information overload, really knowing what it is and how it is caused, is the first big step to dealing with it. What follows are the key elements of this debilitating phenomenon that you need to be aware of.

Information overload can cause the following symptoms:

* Headache
* Stress
* Moodiness
* Overweight
* Cardiovascular issues
* And more…

Plus, often it can cause problems in interpersonal relationships and work relationships. The reason is that most information overload is a choice you make. You choose to be on social media all day; you choose to watch every single news station and every single pundit on TV talk about whatever is the topic of the day.

It Is Like Drinking Water from a Fire Hydrant

Anytime you want to learn something, it is tempting to start gathering tons of information. And due to the net, it is too easy to get drawn down into the rabbit hole of unending information. It becomes hard to determine what information is good and what information is bad.

It Leads to Poor Information Filtering

When you are bombarded with so much information, your brain cannot filter it properly. Your brain does something called twigging, which means that instead of filtering information in terms of importance it just generalizes all information as being the same. This is terrible for decision making.

Information Overload Leads to Bad Choices

If you cannot properly filter information to determine what is true, what is right and what is wrong, you will have a hard time making the right choices. The information overload causes you to choose wrongly on any number of issues, because with so much noise going on you can't determine what is right.

It Harms Your Relationships

Information overload can harm your relationships. If you are always reading your smartphone, looking at social media and aren’t present in your life, it can hurt intimacy. If your partner and friends are complaining, take heed.

It Leads to Black and White Thinking

The world is not black and white. The world is colorful, black, white, gray and everything in between and more. The same can be said for a lot of issues. There are very few issues that are either right or wrong, black or white.

If you have too much information at your fingertips and are rating everything the same, it’s easy to see things as black and white, which can make it hard to negotiate a happy life and successful business.

Information Overload Can Lead to Mental Issues Like Depression

When you get to the point of information overload, a lot of people experience mental problems such as short-term memory issues and even depression. If you find that you’re just feeling mixed up a lot, forget appointments and aren’t doing your best at home or work, consider information overload as a potential culprit.

Information overload can be a big problem for a lot of people. People are wrecking their cars due to not being able to turn away from looking at their text messages. Who knows how much money is lost in overall productivity due to information overload.

You can do your part by trying to limit information overload for yourself and your family. You can also encourage co-workers and employees to avoid multitasking and focus training on smaller topics rather than broad ones.

Wikipedia's take on Information Overload. And here is a blog post on Overcoming Information Overload.