Information overload is a term used to describe the
difficulty of understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one
has too much information about that issue. In an age where there are
blogs, tweets, news articles, YouTube videos, Netflix documentaries and TV. Are
we in an age where making decisions is becoming difficult due to the vast
amount of information made available to us on a daily basis?
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Online media becomes a 24-hour delivery system with each
news outlet bidding to become the first to break the news as opposed to
releasing factual information. Personally it is impossible to keep up and again
separate fact from fiction. This can become difficult when it comes to making big
decisions, say for example choosing an investment or deciding on voting for a
political leader. There is a constant battle of opinions. Some media outlets
producing content with click baited titles and falsified opinions just to create
attention for their particular blog/Twitter.
We live in an age of “fake news” where unfiltered
information becomes facts for the reader. Which in turn gets passed on to other
people. This creates a superficial dystopia where we are controlled
by media sources which are disingenuous. For example Trump last week accused Google of
rigging search results to prioritise negative coverage and left-leaning outlets.
Which brings about a bigger discourse of who can we trust. The power is in the
hands of big tech outlets who can control political influence if they choose
to. Who is to question which news is fake and which news is not? With laptops,
desktops, smartphones, tablets, televisions, and of course social media connections,
it is impossible to overlook the media.
The reality is people are now facing social media fatigue.
It is not uncommon for people to “go off the grid” for days at a time, people
removing their profiles from social networks and people blocking it all completely.
Perhaps this is the only way to avoid it. Information overload and social media
is becoming a stress a burden to people. Maybe the next step is to go through a
stage of digital minimalism, simple living in an age of ever-growing
technology. I can’t see it happening however.
Black Mirror brilliantly present a satirical view of the new
age of social media in the episode “Nosedive”. In the episode, augmented
reality and a single ubiquitous social-media platform let users rate all their
online and in-person interactions on a five-star scale. Everyone in this brave
new world walks around with a user-generated score glowing in front of their
faces, and that score determines their value in society. I strongly recommend giving
it a watch.
To conclude this debate has been going on for a while and most likely
will continue. I am unsure of what the best plan to combat the
excess of information is. Perhaps it is to choose a few trustworthy news sources
and follow them such as BBC news. Maybe becoming a digital minimalist is the
best way. I will be interested to see the progression of how tech companies work
to combat “fake news” and provide a more trustworthy outlet of information.
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