"I do think there are people out there who are dying because they're
getting too much information and they don't know how to handle it."
from
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9704/15/info.overload/index.html
-----------------------
Gary N. Boone gboone@cc.gatech.edu
Georgia Tech www.cc.gatech.edu/~gboone
Experts: Information onslaught bad for your health
April 15, 1997
Web posted at: 5:43 p.m. EDT (2143 GMT)
From Correspondent Kathy Nellis
(CNN) -- Sick of the
information age? You're not
alone.
There's so much data out there
-- on television, in books, on billboards, in magazines and
newspapers and on the Internet - - that it's making some
people physically ill, according to some experts.
Psychologists even have a name for the malady: Information
Fatigue Syndrome.
'We're often seeing a failure of
concentration. We're seeing a loss of
motivation, loss of morale. We're seeing
greater irritability.'
-- Psychologist David Lewis
They say the illness isn't just
mental.
"On the physical level, you
might find people having
digestive problems," said
psychologist David Lewis.
"They may, if the stress is
chronic, have problems with
their heart -- hypertension, high
blood pressure."
Other possible consequences: sleep disorders and adverse
effects on personal and sex lives.
Some say the Internet's to blame. In a survey of managers
conducted by Reuters, nearly half said they thought the
Internet will be a prime cause of information overload in
the
next two years.
"We did the survey in five
international centers ... the U.K.,
the U.S., Hong Kong, Singapore
and Australia," said Paul
Waddington of Reuters Business
Information. "And we
interviewed about 1,300 people
and the report did show some
very interesting findings -- that
people genuinely suffer from
information overload. There's a
business cost and a human cost to
it."
A third of the managers in the Reuter survey said they
suffered from stress-related health problems brought on by
too much information.
Forty-three percent said they had trouble making important
decisions because they had too much information.
And almost two thirds said their personal relationships
suffered because of information overload.
Experts say the syndrome isn't just annoying -- it's
dangerous. Their advice:
Learn to pace yourself.
Take breaks to give your
brain time to absorb
information.
Know when to skim and
when to study.
In a word, says Lewis, lighten up.
"No matter how interesting your job is, it's probably not
worth dying for," he says. "I do think there are people out
there who are dying because they're getting too much
information and they don't know how to handle it."