It is striking that Toffler introduced
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:38 am
In his 1970 book “Future Shock,” futurologist Alvin Toffler popularized the term “information overload.” By this, he meant the problem a person experiences when confronted with an abundance of information. Too much information causes a person to lose the overview and thus be unable to make a responsible and correct decision.
Information Overload
Toffler argues that information overload is comparable to sensory overload, a concept that was kenya phone number list introduced in the 1950s. Like sensory overload, it causes disorientation and unresponsiveness. Toffler adds that: “When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation, or a novelty-loaded context … his predictive accuracy plummets. He can no longer make the reasonably correct assessments on which rational behavior is dependent.”
the concept of information overload before the Internet even existed. In the current information age, the problems he describes have only become greater thanks to the Internet. Everyone with a PC and an Internet connection contributes .
In the report “ The Coming Age of Calm Technology ” (1996), Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown argue that the ubiquitous presence of computers in our daily lives forces us to deal with technology in a different way. Technology should enrich our lives instead of disrupting them: “What matters is not technology itself, but its relationship to us.” They outline a future in which everything and everyone, thanks to computer chips and sensors aka The Internet of Things, is continuously connected to the internet. They also predict a future in which even more information will invade and disrupt our lives. They opt for what they call “calm technology”. This technology ensures that information constantly moves from the periphery to the center of our attention based on relevance.
Information Overload
Toffler argues that information overload is comparable to sensory overload, a concept that was kenya phone number list introduced in the 1950s. Like sensory overload, it causes disorientation and unresponsiveness. Toffler adds that: “When the individual is plunged into a fast and irregularly changing situation, or a novelty-loaded context … his predictive accuracy plummets. He can no longer make the reasonably correct assessments on which rational behavior is dependent.”
the concept of information overload before the Internet even existed. In the current information age, the problems he describes have only become greater thanks to the Internet. Everyone with a PC and an Internet connection contributes .
In the report “ The Coming Age of Calm Technology ” (1996), Mark Weiser and John Seely Brown argue that the ubiquitous presence of computers in our daily lives forces us to deal with technology in a different way. Technology should enrich our lives instead of disrupting them: “What matters is not technology itself, but its relationship to us.” They outline a future in which everything and everyone, thanks to computer chips and sensors aka The Internet of Things, is continuously connected to the internet. They also predict a future in which even more information will invade and disrupt our lives. They opt for what they call “calm technology”. This technology ensures that information constantly moves from the periphery to the center of our attention based on relevance.