Almost direct transcription from the article System overload by Maryann Bird/London, with reporting by Jay Branegan/Brussels and Peggy Salz-Trautman/Bonn, and published in Time, 9.12.96 pp.44-45. This article has been recycled as course material by Joseba Abaitua and is referred from the following two pages: R3 and Gestión y recuperación de la información.
"On same days I can see the pile of papers on my desk grow right before my eyes, just like those time-lapse films of flowers opening up".
Peter Guilford, spokesman for the Eurepean Commission in Brussels.
P. Guilford isn't just worried about the clutter on his desk; the clutter in his mind bothers him too. All that paper contains voluminous words, numbers and diagrams -far too much information for him to read, much less remember and thorougly comprehend. And if he could somehow get trough a deskful of documents, his computer could easily spit out more.
The Internet is rife with Web pages and databases containing material that could be useful to Guilford, if only he could get to it. Still, much of what there is to wade through, he points out, is simply not worth the trouble.
Like most bureaucrats, business executives, teachers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals, Guilford increasingly feels he is suffering from information overload. The symtoms of this epidemic ailment can include tension, occasional irritability and frequent feelings of helpessnes -all signs that the victim is under considerable stress.
"Knowledge is power, but information is not. It's like the detritus that a gold-panner needs to sift through in order to find the nuggets."
David Lewis coined the term "information fatigue syndrome" for what he expects will soon be a recognized medical condition.
"Having too much information can be as dangerous as having too little. Among other problems, it can lead to a paralysis of analysis, making it far harder to find the right solutions or make the best decisions."
"Information is supposed to speed the flow of commerce, but it often just clogs the pipes."
Dr. David Lewis is a British psychologist, author of the report Dying for Information?, commissioned by London based Reuters Business Information. Lewis has coined the term "information fatigue syndrome" for what he expects will soon be a recognized medical condition. Lewis is a consultant who has studied the impact of data proliferation in the corporate world.
Other quotes in this page:
Information and knowledge
Human brain and computers
Essential vs. irrelevant data
In his introduction to the chilling new report Dying for Information?, commissioned by London based Reuters Business Information, Lewis says that an excess of information is strangling many businesses and causing mental anguish and even physicall illness in managers at all levels. The problem is expected to worsen as more use is made of the Internet.
That conclusion stems from Reuters' survey of 1,300 business people in Britain, the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, including junior, middle and senior managers in a variety of industry sectors, from financial services and telecommunications to manufacturing. Two-thirds of those interviewed indicated that stress attributed to dealing with too much information had damaged their personal relationships, increased tension with colleagues at work and contributed to a decline in job satisfaction.
More than 40% felt that important decisions were delayed and the ability to make choices was hampered by excess information, and that the cost of collecting the surplus data exceeded its value. One-third said they suffered from health problems as a direct consequence of stress relatedto information overload.
Ruth Sachs was one such victim. An independent management consultant and part-time lecturer in organizational behaviour at Sheffield Hallam University in northern England, she was afflicted by sympthoms that included fatigue, stomach pains and deteriorating eyesight.
"The first thing I decided to do was be much more exact in the sort of information I asked for. I became more assertive both in asking for information and in saying I don't want it. A lot of information is just mind junk. People are finding it difficult to identify the signal from the noise."
Strategies for dealing with information
Predictions that electronics would lead to the "paperless office" have proved to be wildly off the mark, as computers have made printing information easier than ever before. In today's business environment, information pours in as letters, memos, faxes, technical reports, charts, E-mail messages, and much more.
"While managers formerly cut rivals out of the decission-making loop by denying them information, the strategy now is to bombard them. This is a good tactic, frequently used in legal cases. When lawyers for one side demand information, the opposing attorneys often hide the pertinent data in a mound of useless documents."
"Information stress sets in when people in possession of a huge volume of data have to work against the clock, when major consequences -lives saved or lost, money made or lost- will flow from their decision, or when they feel at a disadvantage because even with their wealth of material they still think they do not have all the facts they need. So challenged, the human body reacts with a primitive survival response. This evolved millions of years ago to safeguard us when confronted by physical danger. In situations where the only options are to kill a adversary or flee from it, the 'fight-flight' response can make the difference between life and death."
"In the case of information stress the anciet reaction undermines performance, making it harder to think clearly or act sensibly. A state of 'hyperarousal' sets in, causing foolish decisions and flawed conclusions to become inevitable. With the brain in panic mode, information is misread. That can lead some professionals in critical positions, such as airline pilots and surgeons, to make serious blunders in tense situations."
"Even when lives are not at stake, the explosion of information can make decision-making stressful. An analyist receives thousands of pages of reports and financial data so that at any moment, a new piece of information could emerge that will change everything. You find yourself feeling more anxious about making decisions and frightened of the outcome."
Christiane Nestroy, a construction industry analyst at the Bayerische Vereinsbank in Munich.
"Just because you can't cope with a lot of information doesn't make you a bad manager. Organizations are gettig by with fewer people doing more, and aren't necessarily giving people time to devise strategies for dealing with information."
"The human brain is still infinitely superior to anything made of silicon. If you drop a ton of apples on a computer, it will never come up with the theory of gravity."
"Better training in separating essential data from material that, no matter how interesting, is irrelevant to the task at hand is needed."
The European Commission is also encouraging governments, corporations and small businesses to train people in how to manage data.
The irony of the fact that Daying for Information? was sponsored by Reuters Business Information is not lost on its executives, who direct the production and marketing of information services to corporate clients around the world.
"We would argue the Reuters' whole raison d'être for the past 150 years is getting through the overload to the salient facts."
Paul Waddington, marketing manager at Reuters.
"Dealing with the information burden is one of the most urgent challenges facing businesses. Unless we can discover ways of staying afloat amidst the surging torrents of information, we may end u drowing in them."
"The solution is a huge wastepaper basket."
The world spent nearly 60 billion minutes on the telephone -talking, faxing and sending data- in 1995. In 1985, the time spent was 15 billion minutes; in 2000 it is expected to be 95 billion minutes.
The BT/MCI Global Communications Report 1996/97. Trends, Analysis, Implications
Every day, approximately 20 million words of technical information are recorded. A reader capable of reading 1000 words per minute would require 1.5 months, reading eight hours every day, to get through one day's output, and at the end of that period he would have fallen 5.5 years behind in his reading
Methos for Satisfying the Needs of the Scientist and the Engineer for Scientific and Technical Communication, Hubert Murray Jr.
More new information has been produced within the last 30 years than in the last 5000. Over 9000 periodicals are published in the United States each year, and almost 1000 books are published daily around the world.
Information Skills for an Information Society: A Review of Research, Susan Hubbard
A weekday edition of The New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in 17th-century England.
Information Anxiety, Richard Saul Wurman