The Mythology of Information Overload

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Tonyia J. Tidline

INTRODUCTION

This project combines ideas from mythology, folklore, and library and information science in an effort to make sense of an aspect of modern culture that is frequently perceived as troublesome. Discussions of information overload, "data glut," or "information anxiety" are abundant in popular culture but do little to shed light on the origin of this problem. Library and information science work sidesteps the need to verify the existence of information overload, seeking instead to mitigate its effects. The discipline has produced a vast literature that addresses user perceptions, information needs, and information-seeking behavior. Information management, information retrieval, and attendant notions such as relevance have also received much attention. Within both popular culture and library and information science research, information overload is usually described or defined by means of anecdote or by associated symptoms. However constituted, popular and scholarly attention confirms information overload as a recognized and resonant cultural concept that persists even without solid corroboration. Mythology and folkloristics are used here as analytic tools to suggest that information overload can be viewed as a myth of modern culture. Here myth does not mean something that is not true but an overarching prescriptive belief.

Studies of mythology and folklore recognize the importance of cultural context and alternative ways of knowing. Moreover, these areas of inquiry also acknowledge social processes involved in the origin and sustenance of enduring beliefs that promote shared understanding of, and response to, "superhuman" phenomena. This article first presents various interpretations of mythology and its relationship to folklore in order to build a composite frame of reference that demonstrates how myth operates today. Next, an examination of library and information science literature reveals an idea of the information society as a superhuman force to be reckoned with, defines what information is, and discusses how people use it. LIS literature, along with writing that circulates in popular culture, also shows how the concept of information overload functions as a modern-day myth that shapes comprehension and coping strategies in an era when information--whether as definitive of society, or as society's chief economic product--has taken center stage.

Viewing information overload as myth validates its existence without requiring proof. However, the occasion of developing arguments to focus this view, along with the absence of systematic cohesive library and information science study of information overload, indicates a need for documentation. The final section of this article reports on a pilot project intended to provide evidence and description of information overload as experienced by a particular folk group.(1) The opinions of this group are of special interest because its members are studying to become library and information science professionals. Because folk group membership affords shared context and meaning consistent with functions of myth, the pilot project also attempts to learn if a folk group can be considered an information resource that serves to reduce the effects of information overload.

MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

The language of myth, folklore, story, and fairytale is intertwined, and (except in technical folkloristic writing) these terms rarely seem clearly differentiated. Sometimes the terms are used interchangeably, which has made it difficult to uncover one concise and coherent definition of mythology and its cultural implications for use in this project. In general, myth, folklore, and story provide cultural continuity and structure, encompass or inspire ritual, and serve instructional purposes. Mythology can be considered a somewhat broader or more universal form than the folktale and is often linked to the sacred or divine. However, the word myth is also used to mean the opposite of fact. This discussion includes various views of myth(2) and its relationship to folkloristics in order to extract the nuance of meaning each offers for a description of the mythology of information overload.

The following discussion from a standard reference work, Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend (1950), articulates the traditional connection between myth and folklore and locates the distinction between the two at the intersection of divine intervention. Here myth is identified with certain "powers" and unexplained phenomena (p. 404). This source explicitly defines myth as:

   a story, presented as having actually occurred in a previous age,
   explaining the cosmological and supernatural traditions of a people, their
   gods, heroes, cultural traits, religious beliefs, etc. The purpose of myth
   is to explain ... the myth must have a religious background in that its
   principal actor or actors are deities; the stories are thus systematized at
   least to the extent that they are related to a corpus of other stories in
   which the given god is a member of a pantheon. Where such interrelation
   does not occur, and where the gods or demigods do not appear, such stories
   are properly classified as folktale. The interchange between myth and
   folktale--attachment of a folktale to some member of a pantheon, or loss of
   the divine element in a popular retelling--is constantly occurring. Many
   folktales, as the Grimms noted, are obviously "broken-down" myths; many
   myths utilize motifs and themes common to folktales the world over. A myth
   remains properly a myth only as long as the divinity of its actor or actors
   is recognized; when the trickster becomes human rather than divine, when
   the hero is a man rather than a god, myth becomes legend, if explanatory or
   limited to some specific location, or folktale, if more generalized. (p.
   778)

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The Mythology of Information Overload

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Tonyia J. Tidline

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