Too Much Information? :: Information Management Learning Essays

Too Much Information? The pervasive, encroaching(a) entropy infrastructure...is as much a part of our lives as morality was for medieval surfs (Tetzeli 1994, p. 60). But is it as well much? Weve all seen the mind-numbing statistics about the exponential growth of information and of technological means of distri notwithstandinging and accessing it. However, some people headway whether the riddle really is one of overload. One source of the problem is real the multiplicity of communication channels. Unlike earlier eras, such as when feeling presses replaced manuscript copying, new technologies are not replacing older ones scarce are adding to the host of media choices (Davidson 1996). With these multiple channels the information flow is at a time simultaneous and multidirectional. However, most traditional information management practices are too linear and specific they were pipes developed for a stream, not an ocean (Alesandrini 1992). The rationalize quantity of informati on and the speed with which it can be acquired give an conjuring of accomplishment (Uline 1996). But what good is all this information if it is not operative? Almost all our resources are dedicated to gathering the tender material--information--and closely nothing is spent on the most important job of transforming information into intelligence (Milton 1989, p. 6). Milton suggests that it is possible to have negative information--that which causes the recipient to kip down less than before because it is not integrated, applied, and transformed into knowledge. Essential to information instruction is understanding the relationship between data, information, and knowledge (TAFE-TEQ 1992) data are raw facts and figures, information is data organize into a meaningful context, and knowledge is organized data (i.e., information) that has been understood and applied. Perhaps it is not too much information, but an explosion of noninformation (Wurman 1989) lacking relevance, quality, an d usefulness. What is needed is better judgment of the quality, accuracy, and reliability of what is attaind(Kinnaman 1994). consort to John Seeley Brown, people may perceive overload because the information they receive does not fit into current mental models for understanding the world (Tetzeli 1994). The problem of information overload thus has both technological and human aspects. The issue is also two pronged both technological--create better technological tools and learn better use of them--and human--revise mental models and sharpen the capacity for critical reflectiveness and analysis. Ive Got to Keep Up Many people believe they have to examine to stay on top of information because of economic, social, and employment-related pressures.