Free Paper Sample on Overcoming Information Overload: The Role of Technology

Introduction

In today’s world of technology, there is a junk of information found on the internet. The individual keeps on writing and publishing content online. Internet users, on the other, are online looking for relevant information to help them solve a problem. Therefore getting what is applicable in a network of vast knowledge is a challenge to everyone. People have been fed with a lot of information and processing them has become a big struggle. Information overload, therefore, is having too much information with little ability to process all of it. According to Mayer, information overload refers to a ‘state that exceeds the limited human information processing capacity (IPC). There are many social media sites that people post every day, including Twitter, blogs, vlogs, Facebook, Television, radio, and the internet. The societal development requirements depend on the fastened production of information through these information sites. Information overload is therefore caused by the quantity of information found online, the frequency of output, and the intensity of the data.

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At the beginning of the word, the concept of information, overload has been there since. King Solomon was a true leader in his time, but he was not a shepherd. As stated in the book Ecclesiastes 12:12, ‘Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books, there is no end, and much study wearies the body.’ This statement shows that information overload existed way back before we were born, and it explains the dangers that it can do to our brains.

Causes of Information Overload

Information overload is caused by unnecessary and unwanted information for personal use, organizational management, and use in the family. With advancements in technology, many organizations digitize their processes; families turn to the internet watching movies and playing video games, and people connect online through social media platforms. Also, our supermarkets today stock more than 40,000 products on here shelves. When shopping, one is likely to find the same product from different manufacturers with other descriptions and different prices. There is a possibility that for a person to buy all their products, they will find them from over five stores while the same products are available in one shop. Choosing which product to take or to buy is confusing to any other person. Therefore, to pick the right one, the individual always takes what has been well-described and manufactured by the best-known company. Some shoppers will buy the cheaper product within their budget.

There is information overload in workplaces. The employees are given too much information, including instructions, key performance indicators, roles, and responsibilities. Business globalization and many information sources containing business processes have a massive volume of data that the employees find challenging to process in their brains.

Information overload, therefore, is caused by the person’s inability to manage and organize irrelevant, unimportant, and too complicated junk information found in different sources (Eppler and Mengis, 2004). When there are so many options to choose relevant information from, the person is likely to face a challenge in choosing which one is relevant. It will be challenging to manage all the sources of information, and determine what is essential within the stipulated time the information is needed.

Effects of Information Overload

With the information overload, the family and society expect people to make rapid and fast decisions to evolve with technology. Therefore, there is a chance that making a faulty decision when choosing which information should be chosen has impaired many organizational processes. Information overload, therefore, has been reported to cause degraded quality of work, mental and psychological issues to the users, and reduced attention span of the user (Hu and Chen, 2011). Also, information overload upsets families, consumes personal time (Shenk, 1998), and is harmful to organizational performance (Sacks 1997)

Measures against Information Overload

When there is too much information, the human brain tends to judge what is true or false. Compared to machines, human minds cannot process considerable details; therefore, exhaustion is probable. Therefore many studies have been done to understand how people cope with information overload and find relevant data from their needs. There is no approved method of dealing with information overload, but the most suggested is improving information literacy (Mutch 1997). Also, the use of the discrimination method helps reduce information overload; for example, abandoning TV and listening to the radio or vice versa, on social media following specific sites and people. Therefore the use of technology includes AI, which will help reduce information overload.

Part 2

Dealing with information overload has been a challenge for many individuals, organizations, and society. The application of technology has been suggested to help filter the junk information found in the different sources today to get relevant information for decision-making in an organization, management, home, and society. Various technologies can be applied in curbing information overload today, including data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. The application of technology in public administration has helped the administrator to serve the public better by the provision of relevant services required using the information available.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence refers to imitating the human process by a machine to help in processing a large volume of information. Artificial intelligence involves the use of devices to do the tasks that a human being can do. Robots are examples of AI whereby they perform duties, including driving, calculation, and management (Nzanis, Katakis, Vlahavas, & Partalas, 2006). As discussed above, human brains can process information and make decisions based on the date selected. Still, when there is too much information found, the mind will be overloaded and thus cannot process the junk of data in the time provided, thus leading to the faulty judgment of processes (Nzanis, Katakis, Vlahavas, & Partalas, 2006). Therefore, Artificial intelligence was developed to help humans deal with the situation.

Characteristics of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence simulates the human brain. Therefore, the following are the characteristics of AI:

Problem-solving

Artificial intelligence can solve problems, just like the human brain. It can solve complex information problems in both particular-purpose and general-purpose domains in an organization or society (Eppler, 2003). The characteristic of problem-solving helps to select the most relevant information that can be used in decision-making, thus making it easier for managers to get work done in public offices.

Reasoning

Artificial intelligence can reason both inductive and deductive and also make conclusions and inferences based on the situation that has been coded in. The AI can recognize situations have per the instructions given to them, and from that, they can reason on how to solve a particular problem as per the instructions coded (Abramson, 2018).

Learning

Artificial intelligence can learn new things, just like human beings. The trends of learning involve the simulation of historical patterns of technology and data input and feedback from the users (Nzanis, Katakis, Vlahavas, & Partalas, 2006). It, therefore, learns from different information and comments and aligns its process to solving the issues (Abramson, 2018). The ability to learn helps AI to gain new ideas on how to function.

Handling Big data

Artificial intelligence is the ability to process the vast volume of data that is continuously changing. The ability to handle the volume of data is an essential feature as it helps to deal with information overload within the shortest time possible (Abramson, 2018). Human brains cannot take massive data that keeps on changing over time; therefore, artificial intelligence will help individuals seeking information to find relevant information within the stipulated time.

Application of Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is applied in five major areas, including image recognition, speech recognition, translation, Q&A, and creating and playing games.

Human beings can recognize images by comparing their colors, sizes, and models. AI also can recognize images. The use of algorithms has helped the AI technology to be able to identify visuals and assist in the management and public sector. Facial recognition, for example, is applied in security systems. The AI is fed with people’s faces, which will be used when looking for criminals by face-matching the suspect with the faces available in the database

Artificial intelligence is used in language translation. There are many languages spoken globally; therefore, having different translators will be cumbersome and expensive for the organization (Nzanis, Katakis, Vlahavas, & Partalas, 2006). AI, therefore, solves this problem by providing translation assistance. Today, AI can translate content from one language to another without prior algorithms developed.

AI also is applied in question and answer sessions, both open and closed domains. The AI, therefore, can answer the general question to specific questions. The application of Q&A (Levitin, 2014) is proven effective when searching for information on the Internet. It makes it faster and more accessible than browsing through the junk of information sources looking for what you need.

Machine learning

Machine learning applies Artificial intelligence in solving day-to-day information problems. It refers to the application of computer-driven machines to perform duties assigned by human beings. Machine learning includes the use of devices that include robots. Machine learning, therefore, is one of the oldest advancements of Artificial intelligence (Nzanis, Katakis, Vlahavas, & Partalas, 2006). Its application is in the area that has a translation, playing games, question, and answer, and also searching for information online.

Machine learning applies the coded algorithm to perform a function that is complex and beyond human capabilities. It makes it easy to bombard information overload by its ability to process a vast volume of data and retrieve relevant information for personal and organizational use. Machine learning (Levitin, 2014) applies different technologies, including neural networks that imitate the human neural system, human language processing, and sentimental analytics. These technologies help in the processing of junk information found in different sources of information to provide valuable information for decision-making.

Data Analytics

Data analytics refers to analyzing data to find new trends associated with the data and answers to questions and problems. There is a lot of unprocessed data found in many information sources today. Processing the data is complicated to a single human; (Monnappa, 2016) thus, data analytics helps process and analyse these data to provide meaningful information for decision making (Monnappa, 2016). The method of data analytics starts with descriptive analytics. It refers to describing raw data to answer what happened in the historical trends of data.

Advanced analytics applies advanced technological tools to extract data, predict, and discover new trends in the information world. Advanced technology tools include machine learning, artificial intelligence, and classical statistics (Monnappa, 2016)