Information Pollution - Overview

Overview

Pollution is a large problem and is growing rapidly. The majority of the modern descriptions of information pollution apply to computer based communication methods, such as e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and RSS feeds. The term acquired particular relevance in 2003 when Jakob Nielsen, a leading web usability expert, published a number of articles discussing the topic. However, as early as 1971 researchers were expressing doubts about the negative effects of having to recover “valuable nodules from a slurry of garbage in which it is a randomly dispersed minor component.” People use information in order to make decisions and adapt to circumstances. Yet, cognitive studies have demonstrated that there is only so much information human beings can process before the quality of their decisions begins to deteriorate. The excess of information is commonly known as information overload and it can lead to decision paralysis, where the person is unable to make a judgment as they cannot see what is relevant anymore. Although technology has clearly exacerbated the problem, it is not the only cause of information pollution. Anything that distracts our attention from the essential facts that we need to perform a task or make a decision could be considered an information pollutant.

The use of the term information pollution also draws attention to the parallels between the information revolution that began in the last quarter of the 20th century and the industrial revolution of the 18th-19th century. Information pollution is seen as the equivalent of the environmental pollution generated by industrial processes. Some authors claim that we are facing an information overload crisis of global proportions, in the same scale of the threats faced by the environment. Others have expressed the need for the development of an information ecology to mirror environmental management practices.