information overload en · NOUN
Etymology
Popularized by Alvin Toffler in Future Shock (1970).
Meanings
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(uncountable) The inability to process everything one hears and sees; the availability or supply of an excess of information, or a state of stress which results.
One of the men who has pioneered in information studies, Dr. James G. Miller, director of the Mental Health Research Institute at the University of Michigan, states flatly that “Glutting a person with more information than he can process may . . . lead to disturbance.” He suggests, in fact, that information overload may be related to various forms of mental illness.
1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 314:But it's often hard to discern the forest for the archaeological trees, partly because archaeology is now so specialized, and also because all of us suffer from information overload about the past dumped on us by the Web, newspapers, TV specials, and all the apparatus of modern global communications.
2006, Brian Fagan, “The Next 50 Years”, in Archaeology, vol. 59:5:Some news executives attribute this youthful apathy to information overload and the explosion of media options.
1990 March 9, Richard Zoglin, “The Tuned-out Generation”, in Time:
Relateds
sensory overload · information fatigue syndrome · information fatigue · infotrash · infostress
Synonyms
infoxication · infoglut · infobesity
Translations (15)
pl przeciążenie informacyjne (too much information) · es infoxicación (too much information) · fr surinformation (too much information) · fi informaatioähky (too much information) · de Informationsüberflutung (too much information) · eo informa superŝarĝo (too much information) · es sobrecarga informativa (too much information) · ja 情報オーバーロード (too much information) · ka ინფორმაციული გადატვირთვა (too much information) · hu információs túlterhelés/túlterheltség (too much information) · ru информацио́нная перегру́зка (too much information) · sv informaatioähky (too much information) · fr surcharge informationnelle (too much information) · uk інформаці́йне переванта́ження (too much information) · gl sobrecarga de información (too much information)