#information-overload

#information-overload

In his short film Papers (1991), the Japanese artist Yoshinao Satoh assembles thousands of newspaper images into a transfixing animation. Moving through a flurry of Japanese characters, moon phases, Go games, house plans and faces that grows ever faster, Satoh creates a mass-media collage that seems to anticipate the age of information overload. Amplifying the frenzied pace and mesmerising effect, he pairs the imagery with a propulsive work by the US composer Steve Reich.

Amir Sepehri, assistant professor of marketing at ESSEC Business School, Dr. Rod Duclos (Western University), and Nasir Haghighi (University of Washington at Tacoma) found that it comes down to the amount of information contained in a talk. When a talk is chock-full of content, broaching several topics, we tend to get information overload, leading us to disengage from the video. So, how can communicators make sure their message gets heard and their audience connects with the video?

News has never been more accessible but for some, that's exactly the problem. Flooded with information and relentless updates, more and more people around the world are tuning out. The reasons vary: for some it's the sheer volume of news, for others the emotional toll of negative headlines or a distrust of the media itself. In online forums devoted to mindfulness and mental health, people discuss how to step back, from setting limits to cutting the news out entirely.

Avoiding threatening information reduces discomfort in the short run but doesn't fix underlying problems.

Memory is indeed limited, though humans often do not perceive this restriction. Prolonged sleep deprivation can blur the lines between memory and reality, creating a false sense of remembrance.