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TLA Home Page Lynn Akin, visiting assistant professor at the School of Library and Information Studies, Texas WomanÕs University
The Information Age ushers in numerous benefits such
as access, currency, and availability of information.
But some argue that a surfeit of information can result in information diseases.
Information overload represents one common negative information condition, but
the newest ailment is called Information Fatigue Syndrome or IFS. Coined by
a British psychologist to describe a growing phenomenon of the Information Age,
IFS refers to the inability to 'keep up' with the ever increasing amounts of
available information.
IFS derives from the findings of a research study commissioned by Reuters. Benchmark Research, awarded the commission, surveyed executives worldwide about the effects of information overload. The provocatively titled Dying for Information (1996) included a foreword written by psychologist David Lewis. Dr. Lewis, responding to the research findings linking information overload to poor health, stress, and tension, discusses concerns with "the worldwide burden of keeping up with the information explosion." He argues that having too much information can be as dangerous as having too little and diagnoses the IFS state as one of a hyper-aroused psychological condition likely to result in "foolish decisions and flawed conclusions." Furthermore, Lewis expects that this syndrome will soon become a recognized medical condition (Whitcomb 1997).
Etiology
Words like fatigue and syndrome are common enough to understand but the word 'information' causes problems because it eludes handy definition. Knitting a definition from the information fatigue articles requires a list of nouns: newspaper, voice mail, fax, television, Internet, e-mail, hard copy, or more specific words such as numbers, diagrams, news, stories, opinions, surveys, rumors, and reports. No one delivery method or format emerges as the chief cause of IFS. Several articles simply condemned the entire communications explosion as responsible for IFS.
It seems unlikely that all these communication technologies
cause IFS. Moreover, it is a curious fact that the promoters of this syndrome
do not seem to know exactly what
it is about.
Pathology
Very little print history dissects the idea of information fatigue syndrome. As of October 1998, searches of established print tools via Dialog provided few hits. ABI-Inform yields five sources and a Lexis-Nexis search provides 57 more, for a total of 62 articles, all of which were published from 1995 to date, and 41 cite or mention by name either Reuters, Lewis, or the title of the actual study, Dying for Information. Newspapers, radio broadcasts or television program transcripts comprise the majority of the 62 sources, emphasizing the currency of the topic and the power of the immediate mediums.
Lack of history, however, does not discourage authors from calling IFS, "a common disorder first detected in intelligence officers in WWII" (Gladman 1997), or more specifically, in British and American intelligence decoders (Welsh 1997). One interview with an IFS victim detailed her painful five-year recovery (Uhlig 1996). Another profiled victim related her symptoms of fatigue, stomach pains, and deteriorating eyesight (Bird 1996). According to Dying for Information survey results, British women are more likely to suffer physical illness due to information overload (1996). Additionally, 52 percent of the Reuters respondents revealed that they suffered ill health through the need to deal with excessive information (1996). Librarians appear to be an ideal IFS group, being both predominantly female and information specialists. No widespread reports, however, reveal such an outbreak.
Presentation
A constellation of related symptoms characterizes Information Fatigue Syndrome. People with IFS become unable to perform in-depth analysis, which leads to difficulty in reaching conclusions. Other psychological problems involve irritability, tension, feelings of helplessness, and mental anguish (Bird 1996).
Physical ailments include fatigue, stomach pains, failing eyesight,
or insomnia. Futurist Michael Marien predicts
sleep deprivation of a massive scale (Whitcomb 1997). Headaches, forgetfulness,
bad temper, and computer rageactually hitting the computercount as physical
manifestations of IFS (Welsh 1997). In one interview, Ted Turner offered that
IFS even affects our love lives (Dodge 1997). No proof
was provided.
Rx
Curative suggestions abound. An IFS sufferer may want to consider antidepressants or tranquilizers. A visit to the local sleep clinic or sleeping pills will alleviate the fatigue and insomnia problems. Talk therapists can probably help sufferers better understand and use technology (Whitcomb 1997).
Dr. Lewis offers three tips to avoid IFS. First, become really comfortable with whatever technology you are using. Second, improve your method of accessing data through your eyes. And finally, set priorities (Lewis 1996). Nevertheless, technology changes almost daily, the material to be visually scanned keeps rising, and eyesight would almost certainly continue to deteriorate. It remains doubtful how these suggestions help individuals avoid IFS. The treatment appears to create more of the very illness it presumes to avoid.
Mutations
"Information Fatigue Syndrome" is not the only linguistic foray attempting to enclose frustration over human information processing limits within medical boundaries. Going beyond the garden variety "information overload," other recent attempts include "information obesity," "info-biological inadequacy," or "fragmentia." Information obesity refers to an over-rich diet of information, data, facts, opinions, and reports (Welsh 1997). Info-biological inadequacy syndrome competes with IFS as a form of anxiety brought on when a person wishes she or he "could absorb information at a rate somewhat faster than the level that was hardwired into human DNA" (Shenk 1997). Finally, fragmentia, distantly akin to gestalt theory, occurs when an individual deals only with parts and never complete wholes (Shenk 1997).
Prognosis
Every year, marketing and public relations firms vie for recognition of advertising campaigns created on behalf of their clients. In 1998, the Firefly Campaign won the gold medal award with its Information Fatigue Syndrome marketing strategy produced for Reuters (Curtis 1998). A leading stress psychologist was brought on board to help produce a research report to lend credibility to IFS.
Cynical readers nod their heads and wonder at the baseness of such manipulative marketing campaigns. Except for one thing, they would be right: "Reuters has received more than 5000 enquiries about IFS" (Curtis 1998).
So, remember, if you were intending to call in sick with information
overload, think twice. Show how current you are and call in with Information
Fatigue Syndrome. But do
it quickly!
Bibliography
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