Information Overload: Causes, Symptoms and Solutions

While there is no universally agreed upon definition for information overload, most have experienced it and few have difficulty recognizing it. Looking back at the Takeaways, Questions Forwarded and Minutes for LILA’s June and September meetings, there were nine references to this subject. Clearly, this is a topic on the minds of LILA members. It has long been a concern for knowledge and information management workers. And it is not uncommon to find articles on this topic in the business sections of local newspapers. While many seem to acknowledge information overload’s existence, few realize how serious a problem it is. Vast sums of money, time and hard work are being spent to improve organizations, but information overload is neutralizing those efforts. Under the strain of information overload, it becomes difficult or impossible to fashion a learning organization that is maximizing its member’s creativity and decision-making ability. Why are we not more alarmed by this serious problem? And why are we not doing more about it? The goals and design of this brief are simple and straightforward. After offering definitions and a model that describes and analyzes information overload, we look at the severity of the problem (symptoms), explore its causes and offer potential solutions.