The Mythology of Information Overload

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Tonyia J. Tidline

Additionally, although different social classes experience differing environments of work and leisure and construct their media environments accordingly, there is one thing they share--a "torrent of potential messages spew into the filter of personal attention. The few messages that are actually attended to can still overwhelm the individual. Of those, fewer still are internalized. From the receiver's perspective, this is information overload, meaning that by far most messages are lost ... the denser the media environment, the more lost messages" (Schement & Curtis, 1995, p. 123). This experience has also been linked to "information poverty" as another effect of the information society. Information poverty of this type can occur in any economic class. It refers to lack of skill and experience in using various kinds of information systems, receipt of too much or repetitious information, or "bias against using certain information channels" (Sweetland, 1993, pp. 8-9). Another dimension of information poverty is ignorance as a consequence of the inability to know everything or of getting incorrect information--both of which are more likely to occur in "the information society" (Diener, 1986, p. 23).

Although conceptions of an information society may differ, they nevertheless inspire complex descriptions of its effects. It is therefore reasonable to assume a view of the information society as an inexplicable overwhelming entity that must be managed somehow. Before taking a closer look at how it is possible to use a mythology for this purpose, we must examine information itself to learn what it is, what it does, and how it is used in a cultural sense.

INFORMATION

What information is, does, and how it is used in culture has been considered in several interesting ways that can help shape a description of the mythology of information overload. For Buckland (1991), "information-as-thing" is "evidence" that exists in many forms, including traditional sources like data, books, or documents, and nontraditional sources like events and objects. As "thing," information is situational--it is relevant or useful in context. This multifaceted definition of information lends itself easily to fashioning a mythology of information overload for several reasons. First, mythological process does not discriminate among types and modes of transmitting information. Material, ritual, story, and performance are considered equally important communicative forms for moving "evidence" through time and space. Second, mythological practice takes a long and broad view of time and space that allows information and its many manifestations to work together or be combined in innovative ways that demonstrate individual and collective expression. Third, because of its elastic perception of a time/space continuum, mythology is inclined to see information operating in contexts or situations that can be simultaneously relevant in the past, present, and future.

Buckland's inclusive view of information is easy to reconcile with tenets of mythology. Other contributors to library and information science literature have also considered information in ways that lead to understanding it in process, which further supports developing a mythology of information overload. According to White (1994), information is "that which reduces uncertainty; it is symbolic data or expression stored outside the human body through artificial means; it inheres in statements or propositions that are meaningful, new, and relevant, true, and authoritative" (pp. 258-60). These phrases describing information are common throughout library and information science literature. However, White takes the definition of information further. For White, information is not static. It is the "medium of exchange between internal and external memory" (p. 258). Internal memory "is the province of cognitive psychology and its cognates (learning, representation, imaging, and imagining)" (p. 250). External memory exists in two forms--that of other people, which might be called social or collective memory, and that stored through human artifice in records.