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Protect our environment from information overload

Nature Human Behaviour volume 8, pages 402–403 (2024)Cite this article

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We are now exposed daily to more information than we can process and this has substantial costs. We argue that the information space should be recognized as part of our environment and call for research into the effects and management of information overload.

A recent study summarizes IOL as a “negative psychological state in which individuals feel that they are receiving too much information, which hinders their ability to carry out their tasks”3, although there is no universally accepted definition (owing to its overlap with cognitive overload). From a psychological perspective, IOL can correspond to cognitive load4 but other components — such as fatigue, attention, time pressure and working-memory capacity — also need to be considered, as IOL is a multidimensional construct that entails cognitive, emotional, contextual and environmental aspects3.

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Fig. 1: Information space should be considered as an important part of our environment and be protected alongside air, water and soil.

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Acknowledgements

The authors of this work were funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe grant OMINO – Overcoming Multilevel INformation Overload (grant number 101086321, http://ominoproject.eu). Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the European Research Executive Agency can be held responsible for them. J.A.H., P.K, T.K., P.B. and J.S. were also co-financed with funds from the Polish Ministry of Education and Science under the programme entitled International Co-Financed Projects and J.A.H. and J.S. additionally acknowledge support from a special grant for leaders of European projects coordinated by the Warsaw University of Technology. B.K.S. was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (USA) Grant NSF-SBE 2214216. P.K. acknowledges support from Polish National Science Centre grants 2021/41/B/ST6/04471 and 2020/37/B/ST6/03806.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, Warszawa, Poland

    Janusz A. Hołyst & Julian Sienkiewicz

  2. GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Köln, Germany

    Philipp Mayr

  3. Information School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Michael Thelwall

  4. School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK

    Ingo Frommholz

  5. Department of Physics, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Shlomo Havlin & Alon Sela

  6. Agriculture Research Organization, Volcani Institute, Rishon LeZion, Israel

    Alon Sela

  7. Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Yoed N. Kenett

  8. Modul University Vienna GmbH, Wien, Austria

    Denis Helic

  9. Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Denis Helic

  10. Slovenian Press Agency, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Aljoša Rehar & Sebastijan R. Maček

  11. Department of Artificial Intelligence, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wrocław, Poland

    Przemysław Kazienko & Tomasz Kajdanowicz

  12. Faculty of Mathematics and Information Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology, Warszawa, Poland

    Przemysław Biecek

  13. Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics, and Mechanics, University of Warsaw, Warszawa, Poland

    Przemysław Biecek

  14. Department of Computer Science and Network Science and Technology Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Boleslaw K. Szymanski

  15. Społeczna Akademia Nauk, Łódź, Poland

    Boleslaw K. Szymanski

Authors
  1. Janusz A. Hołyst
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  2. Philipp Mayr
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Shlomo Havlin or Julian Sienkiewicz.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Hołyst, J.A., Mayr, P., Thelwall, M. et al. Protect our environment from information overload. Nat Hum Behav 8, 402–403 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01833-8

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