Too Much Information? :: Information Management Learning Essays

Too Much Information? The pervasive, invasive tuition infrastructure...is as much a part of our lives as religion was for medieval surfs (Tetzeli 1994, p. 60). But is it too much? Weve all seen the mind-numbing statistics about the exponential growth of information and of scientific means of distributing and accessing it. However, some people question whether the problem really is one of overload. One source of the problem is actually the multiplicity of communication channels. Unlike earliest eras, such as when printing presses replaced manuscript copying, new technologies are not replacing older ones but are adding to the host of media choices (Davidson 1996). With these multiple channels the information flow is now simultaneous and multidirectional. However, most traditional information management practices are too linear and specific they were pipes developed for a stream, not an oceanic (Alesandrini 1992). The sheer quantity of information and the speed with which it can be acquired give an illusion of accomplishment (Uline 1996). But what good is all this information if it is not operative? Almost all our resources are dedicated to gathering the raw material--information--and almost nothing is spent on the most important job of transforming information into experience (Milton 1989, p. 6). Milton suggests that it is possible to have negative information--that which causes the recipient to know less than before because it is not integrated, applied, and transformed into knowledge. Essential to information mastery is understanding the alliance between data, information, and knowledge (TAFE-TEQ 1992) data are raw facts and figures, information is data organized into a meaningful context, and knowledge is organized data (i.e., information) that has been understood and applied. possibly it is not too much information, but an explosion of noninformation (Wurman 1989) lacking relevance, quality, and usefulness. What is needed is better judgment of the qua lity, accuracy, and reliability of what is received(Kinnaman 1994). According to John Seeley Brown, people may discern overload because the information they receive does not fit into current mental models for understanding the world (Tetzeli 1994). The problem of information overload thus has both technological and human aspects. The solution is also two pronged both technological--create better technological tools and make better use of them--and human--revise mental models and sharpen the capacity for life-sustaining reflection and analysis. Ive Got to Keep Up Many people believe they have to try to stay on top of information because of economic, social, and employment-related pressures.