How is communication affected by information overload?

Answer 1

Today we live in a world of fast communications, fast computers and easy information access; So businesses (big and small) have come to depend on the use of faster, better and smarter communication technology (such as smart phones, computers, the email and internet technologies) to help them access, gather, share, and process data and information that would help them move their businesses forward effectively. In addition to that, the benefits of globalization have made it affordable for lots of people to own digitized information communication tools. However, because technology and globalization have put information at the fingertips of almost everyone and every business, there is a downside to that overabundance of information. It makes it harder to differentiate between what information is useful or not. Whenever people receive more information than they can effectively process, it creates " information overload," which can negatively affect businesses. In the company where I work, our employees would hardly have time to do their work anymore if they should read and respond to the daily barrage of emails. So, based on that, information overload can lower productivity. On the other hand, some of our employees choose not to read the emails and simply delete them. By deleting most emails to minimize distraction from work, they may be missing out on very important messages. So, in that case, information overload can create the risk of misinformation due to not enough time to assess the validity and usefulness of most of the information being either deleted or adopted. Lastly, information overload can intensify employee stress levels due to the continuous annoyance and anxiety it brings. High stress when sustained affects people's health and costs businesses money.