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"Information Overload in Undergraduate Students"Do SNS contribute to information overload? This report says no.UNC Honors thesis submitted 9 April 2009MLA Citation Suggestion:Weis Jr., John. "Information Overload in Undergraduate Students." Honors Thesis University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. 2009.
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Information Overload 1
Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Barbara Wildemuth for her aid in the research and statistical analysis of this thesis. My gratitude also goes out to the perpetually patient Dr. Barreau, and to Mr. Fred Stutzman, who first showed me that one can turn a college pastime into a scientific study. I also cannot thank my parents enough for their love and encouragement in my pursuit of knowledge. This project was supported by the Sarah Steele Danhoff Undergraduate Research Fund, administered by the Honors Office at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Information Overload 2
Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 1
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... 2
Tables and Figures ........................................................................................................ 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 4
Literature Review .......................................................................................................... 5
Methods ....................................................................................................................... 14
Results ......................................................................................................................... 16
Discussion ................................................................................................................... 23
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 26
References ................................................................................................................... 28
Appendix A: Recruitment E-mails .............................................................................. 33
Appendix B: Consent Form......................................................................................... 35
Appendix C: Survey .................................................................................................... 39
Appendix D: Statistics Tables ..................................................................................... 46
Information Overload 3
Tables and Figures Table 1. Demographic breakdown of the respondents ................................................ 17
Table 2. Response to the item “I feel overloaded by the amount of information I have to handle.” ................................................................................................................... 18
Table 3. Correlations between information sources and frequency of experiencing information overload ................................................................................................... 19
Table 4. SNS behaviors and how they correlate with experiencing information overload. ...................................................................................................................... 20
Table 5. How SNS behaviors correlate with the perception of SNSs as sources of information overload ................................................................................................... 20
Table 6. A distribution of the number of coping strategies employed by students. .... 22
Table 7. How gender and GPA correlate with frequency of feeling information overload ....................................................................................................................... 24
Table 8. Enrollment statistics for the University of North Carolina, Spring 2009 ..... 46
Table 9. Response distributions to items about information sources .......................... 50
Table 10. Response distributions SNS usage behavior items ..................................... 52
Table 11. Response distributions to coping strategy items ......................................... 56
Table 12. Correlations between SNS usage behaviors and feeling information overload. ...................................................................................................................... 57
Table 13. Correlations between information sources and feelings of information overload ....................................................................................................................... 58
Information Overload 4
Introduction
With the advent of the Internet and ubiquitous information technology, there is
not only a greater capability for one to find needed information, there is also a greater
demand to stay informed about current events in the world, one’s profession, and
one’s social life. These pressures can be overwhelming enough to cause a malady
known as information fatigue syndrome, analysis paralysis, or information overload.
The phenomenon, henceforth known as information overload, is the sense of being
overwhelmed by one’s information demands. Ellington (2005) cites class, e-mail,
personal web browsing, instant messaging, and seven other sources of information
overload in an undergraduate student’s lifestyle. I suspect the relative impact of these
sources have changed, however, and will investigate whether social networking sites
are another source of information overload. The questions to be researched are:
• To what extent are students experiencing information overload, and what are
the primary sources of this overload?
• How do students cope with information overload?
• What is the relationship between social networking site usage and reported
feelings of information overload?
This study reviews the literature on information overload, then reports the
findings of an online survey administered during the spring 2009 semester of a public
university. The survey, a more quantitative extension of Ellington’s (2005) research,
looks to analyze the frequency of information overload experienced by undergraduate
students, coping strategies used to alleviate the feelings of overload, and what role
social networking sites have in these feelings of information overload.
Information Overload 5
Literature Review
Information overload has become an increasingly salient issue in the wired world.
The annual costs of lost productivity caused by this modern malady has been
estimated by one consulting firm to be $650 billion (Richtel, 2008), and the stress
induced by too much information can pose a health risk to the overwhelmed worker
(White, 2000). Because of its dual threat to mind and money, we must have a clear
definition of information overload and understand what the primary sources of
information overload are. Likewise, strategies that reduce information overload need
to be evaluated and optimized to confront this problem that plagues so many citizens
of the information society.
The concept of information overload has seen many labels and definitions over
the years, depending on the context and severity of the situation in which it is
experienced. Regardless of the name, information overload is a result of the
tremendous influx of information and our inherent compulsion to know all we can. A
look at the psychological and physiological impact of information overload is
warranted, as well as an examination of the mechanisms people employ to reduce
information overload. Finally, looking at information overload in other types of
computer-mediated communication can reinforce the concepts named above, as well
as provide a suitable bellwether for how social networking sites (SNS) may serve to
exacerbate or ameliorate information overload in the undergraduate student’s life.
Information Overload 6
Defining the Problem
Information overload has been called by many names and has been studied in
many subject domains (Eppler & Mengis, 2004). It has had objective criteria applied
to its measurement (Jacoby, 1974; Galbraith, 1974), and it has been subjectively self-
reported (Farhoomand & Drury, 2002; Ellington, 2005). Broadbent (1958) and Miller
(1956) demonstrated the cognitive limits of individuals for processing information,
but did not comment on the effects of chronically pressing these limits. Nevertheless,
the majority of the studies concerning information overload use the term to describe
the disparity between one’s information processing capability and the volume of
information available to parse.
In addition to the chronological and psychological limits of processing
information, information irrelevance and fragmentation (Karger & Jones, 2006) are
also key contributors to feelings information overload (Farhoomand & Drury, 2002;
Ellington, 2005). Fragmentation is especially problematic, as having to maintain
multiple software applications (Bergman, Beyth-Marom, & Nachmias, 2006),
multiple devices (Dearman & Pierce, 2008), and interleaving activities (Bellotti et al.,
2005) add directly to the cognitive overhead of managing information. Perhaps new
techniques or technologies may mitigate fragmentation, but first it is necessary to
understand the extent of its impact among many different population sectors, such as
undergraduate students.
Information Overload 7
The Need to Know
One of the more insidious elements of information overload is that it is
sometimes driven by a personal compulsion to know as much as one can. The
research of Cacioppo et al. (1982, 1984, 1996) and Cohen et al. (1955) indicates that
some people are innately wired to enjoy thinking. Need for cognition is a personality
trait that indicates one’s tendency to retrieve, interpret, and evaluate information.
Cacioppo et al. group people as either cognitive misers, who use experts and
heuristics in seeking information, or chronic cognizers, who seek and evaluate
information on their own (1996). Cacioppo et al. have also found several studies
which have shown a positive correlation between ACT scores and need for cognition,
as well as between grade point averages and need for cognition (1996).When
considering undergraduate students at a selective university such as the University of
North Carolina, one could reasonably infer that they have a high need for cognition.
Their curiosity and intellectual independence, when combined with the volume of
information available and social pressures to seek as much of that information as
possible, can result in a self-induced overload. On the other hand, research in internet
usage behaviors has not shown significant differences in browsing habits between
people with high need for cognition and people with low need for cognition
(Amichai-Hamburger et al., 2007, Kaynar & Armichai-Hamburger, 2008). This latter
fact is comforting to an extent, especially considering that Google has indexed over 1
trillion unique pages from the Internet in the past decade (Alpert & Hajaj, 2008).
Information Overload 8
The aforementioned social pressures provide an irresistible impetus to retrieve and
consume as much information as possible. Wilson (1997) laments the pressure on
interdisciplinary researchers to stay current with all of their disciplines. Decision
makers in organizations often feel a need to amass an excessive quantity of
information to justify their decisions and reduce uncertainty, often to diminishing
returns (Butcher, 1995). In the context of social networking sites, having a profile and
consistently checking it is an obligation with undesirable social consequences when it
is unmet (boyd, 2007).
Computer-Mediated Communication
Social networking sites (SNS) are the latest trend in computer-mediated
communication. These avenues often provide private, asynchronous communication
in the manner of e-mail, public postings similar to Usenet or bulletin board systems,
and even instant messaging, incurring the advantages, as well as disadvantages, of all
three technologies. Looking at some of SNSs’ analogues could give us insight into
how significant SNSs may be in the information overload field.
As the single most common use of the Internet (Edmunds & Morris, 2000), e-
mail is also often the primary culprit in contributing to feelings of information
overload (Bawden et al., 1999; Janssen & Poot, 2006). Farhoomand and Drury (2002)
and Ellington (2005) found that e-mail is the second most common source of
information overload behind organizational sources. A study from the Pew Internet &
American Life Project (Madden, 2008) notes that 53% of American workers use
separate e-mail accounts for work and personal use, yet another instance of
Information Overload 9
information fragmentation. Nevertheless, coping strategies such as filtering, ignoring,
organizing, and delegating e-mail messages can be transferred to the interfaces of
many SNSs. In Jones et al.’s study (2004) of Usenet postings, they found users are
more likely to respond to simpler messages in overloaded mass interaction, to
generate simpler responses as the overloading of mass interaction increases, and to
end active participation as the overloading of mass interaction increases. Could there
be a social saturation point in SNSs in which users “end active participation” in them
in the manner described by Milgram (1970)?
Friends or Foes?
When individuals must keep up with dozens of e-mails per day (Fisher et al.,
2006; Whittaker, Bellotti, and Gwizdka, 2006), one might wonder why an individual
might burden himself with yet another tributary for the information flood: the social
networking site. However, Facebook reports over 110 million active users worldwide
and an 85% market share of 4-year universities in the United States (Statistics |
Facebook, 2008). Its widespread appeal is generally acknowledged, but Facebook’s
exact impact on students’ information habits have yet to be examined. SNSs could
provide good avenues for information delegation and filtration, letting friends weed
out irrelevant information for each other. On the other hand, SNSs could wind up as
another technology that pushes unsolicited information to the users. The amount of
agency users have in retrieving information from SNSs could influence their
perception of information overload. Hopefully, all of these issues will come to light
Information Overload 10
through further study. In this particular study, however, I will investigate the
following hypotheses:
H1a) There is a positive correlation between social networking site usage frequency
and frequency of feeling information overload.
H1b) There is a positive correlation between social networking site usage duration
and frequency of feeling information overload.
To Your Health!
Information overload is more than a drain on companies’ productivity and
time; it is a genuine health threat to 21st century workers. According to a recent study
by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (Madden, 2008), 49% of workers feel
that information and communications technologies have increased the amount of
stress they feel about their job. This stress can manifest itself physically in
cardiovascular problems, headaches, digestive disorders, fatigue, and blurred vision
(de Rijk et al., 1999; White, 2000). Psychologically, the stress can lead to depression
(Klausegger et al., 2007; Zeldes et al., 2007) and diminished attention span
(Hallowell, 1995). If too much information does not place a person into “analysis
paralysis” (Shenk, 1997; White, 2000), the complete inability to make a decision, it
may still lead to overconfidence and other adverse effects in decision making (Eppler
& Mengis, 2004; Klausegger et al., 2007). For the long-term health of current
undergraduate students, more research will be useful in determining the most
significant contributors to information overload stress and in evaluating effective
coping strategies.
Information Overload 11
Lightening the Load
Humans have adapted two main strategies to reduce information overload:
they either seek to increase their information processing capacity, or they reduce the
cognitive effort involved in processing the information (de Bakker, 2006). Ways of
increasing the information processing capacity of individuals include compressing
and aggregating information, training and acquiring skills such as speed reading
(Eppler et al., 2004; Koniger & Janowitz, 1995), multitasking, and employing
features in information technology (Allan & Shoard, 2006). Ways of decreasing the
cognitive effort involved in information processing include filtering out irrelevant
(Savoleinen, 2007) or redundant information, delegating the responsibility of
handling the information, or simply dedicating less attention to processing the
information (Agosto, 2002).
The merits of multitasking, defined as working on several tasks in quick
succession, are questionable. Studies have shown that there is a cognitive cost in
switching between tasks that is detrimental to workers’ effectiveness (Dzubak, 2006).
Moreover, the learning potential for students is drastically reduced when their
attention is divided between several tasks (Gardner, 2008; Levine et al., 2007). This
coping strategy may actually be exacerbating the feelings of information overload
among undergraduate university students.
Allan and Shoard (2006) found that when police officers were issued personal
digital assistants to handle e-mail in the field, the officers were able to spread their e-
mail loads throughout the day and reduce their feelings of information overload. E-
mail users who reduced their inbox queues through frequent organizing and
Information Overload 12
immediate message response were less likely to report being overloaded (Dabbish
and Kraut, 2006; Fisher et al., 2006; Whittaker, Bellotti, & Gwizdka, 2006; Whittaker
& Sidner, 1996). In several studies researchers saw e-mail clients being used for file
archival, file transfer, and task management, indicating the tendency for people to
centralize their software habits, often through satisficing strategies (Barreau, 1995), in
order to reduce fragmentation. Once the information is centralized, users organize
their information center to aid in retrieval and manage overload (Fisher et al., 2006).
In the context of this study, I will investigate the use of coping strategies
categorized by Farhoomand and Drury (2002) and Ellington (2005). Prominent
among these are prioritizing information, organizing work, delegating, filtering
information and eliminating the source. These are strategies that are very similar to
those employed by urban dwellers in Milgram’s (1970) work on the experience of
living in cities, indicating that abstract principles of information overload can be
applied in different contexts and implying the broader applicability of this study. This
leads me to the following hypothesis:
H2) There is a negative correlation between the number of coping strategies
employed by an individual and their frequency of feeling information overload.
Information Overload 13
Need For Research
When social networking sites have become as prevalent as they have among
internet users, and especially among college students, it signals a paradigm shift in
how people gather and share social information. But do users perceive SNSs as a
source of information overload? Are there particular usage behaviors – such as
frequently logging in to an SNS or remaining logged in for extended periods of time –
that influence feelings of information overload? How might the employment of
certain coping strategies determine the frequency of feeling information overload?
Finally, is there a relation between a student’s grade point average, which has been
linked to need for cognition, and reporting information overload? Through an online
survey, this study aims to provide the quantitative data that will answer these
questions.
Information Overload 14
Methods
This fixed design study consisted of an online survey, as I wanted to begin a
quantitative orientation in extending the findings of Farhoomand & Drury (2002) and
Ellington (2005). I provided ordinal Likert-type items for the sources of information
overload listed in Ellington’s study to better measure the relative prevalence each
source had in contributing to students’ sense of information overload. I administered
a pilot study (N=25) in December 2008 to get feedback on item wording and form
input design. There were sixty items in the final survey, although if the respondent
answered in the negative to using social networking sites, they were immediately
brought to the demographic items section of the survey. Also, items in this survey
pertaining to SNS usage habits were based on a 2008 Educause Center for Applied
Research study (Salaway & Caruso). As this was the third administration of the
ECAR study, I was confident in the wording of its survey items. Moreover, the report
could provide some corroborative evidence to this study’s statistical findings on
students’ SNS usage. The final survey and informed consent form are in the
Appendix of this thesis.
The most recent statistics on the student population at the University of North
Carolina indicate that during the spring 2009 semester there were 9,780 females and
6,763 males enrolled as undergraduates, for a total of 16,543 students in the
population (“SAID”, 2009). However, not all of these students were subscribers to the
informational e-mail mailing list through which I sent the study’s recruitment e-mails.
Participants were solicited via two e-mail announcements which contained a link to
Information Overload 15
the online Qualtrics survey. The survey was open for completion during the weeks of
January 26, 2009 through February 13, 2009. The initial recruitment e-mail was sent
on January 26, and a week later (February 2) the second e-mail with a link to the
survey was sent out to the participant pool. Once the three-week data collection
period was over, I closed the online survey to further submissions and began to clean
out the data. Data was unacceptable if survey takers did not agree to the informed
consent form item given on the first page. Submissions were also excluded if no items
were answered after the initial informed consent input. This yielded a final count of
N=343. Because this was a non-random population, N was a sufficiently large sample
from which I may extrapolate findings from the data analysis of this study.
Information Overload 16
Results
Demographics
Of the 343 respondents to the survey, 92 were male and 249 were female, with
two respondents unreported. The gender percentage of respondents had a much higher
female representation (73%) than that of the university’s undergraduate populace
(59%, or 9,780 out of 16,543 total students). Also, members of the senior class were
overrepresented, constituting 36% (5,894 out of 16,543) of the undergraduate
population but accounting for 53% (181 out of 341) of respondents to the survey. I
was unable to find enrollment statistics for part-time versus full-time students in the
general university population, but 97% (319 out of 341) of the respondents were full-
time, compared to 3% (22 out of 341) of the part-time student respondents. See
Appendix for the University of North Carolina’s enrollment statistics. There was no
breakdown by age or ethnicity for the survey.
Information Overload 17
Study Demographics
Grade Point Average
GPA Count Prob
A 57 0.16814
A- 96 0.28319
B+ 62 0.18289
B 55 0.16224
B- 27 0.07965
C+ 13 0.03835
C 9 0.02655
C- 4 0.01180
Decline to Report
16 0.04720
Total 339 1.00000
Gender
Gender Count Prob
Female 249 0.73021
Male 92 0.26979
Total 341 1.00000
Class Standing
Class Count Prob
Senior 181 0.53079
Freshman 47 0.13783
Other class
113 0.33138
Total 341 1.00000
Full-Time Status
Status Count Prob
Full Time
319 0.93548
Part Time
22 0.06452
Total 341 1.00000
Table 1. Demographic breakdown of the respondents by GPA, gender, class standing and
full-time status
Feelings of Information Overload and Their Sources
Undergraduates reported feeling overloaded by the information they had to
handle at least occasionally (M=3.47, SD=0.82). The highest rated sources of
information overload were Class Assignments (M=3.61, SD=1.00), E-mail (M=3.47,
SD=1.17), and Work (M=3.21, SD=1.07). Students had a neutral or undecided attitude
toward social networking sites as a source of information overload (M=3.09,
SD=1.17). The source least likely to be perceived as a source of information overload
Information Overload 18
was instant messaging (M=2.47, SD=1.03), which is surprising, giving the
interrupting nature of the communication. See Table 9 in the Appendix for the
complete statistics on attitudes about sources of information overload.
0
1
2
3
4
5
Disagree
Mean 3.4723032
SD 0.8227164
Std Err Mean 0.0444225
upper 95% 3.5596789
lower 95% 3.3849275
N 343
Key 1) Never 2) Very Rarely 3) Occasionally 4) Frequently 5) Very Frequently
Item 1: “I feel overloaded by the amount of information I have to handle.”
Table 2. Response to the item “I feel overloaded by the amount of information I have to
handle.” Most students felt overloaded at least occasionally.
Information Overload 19
Variable Spearman ρ Prob>| ρ| Class Assignments
0.3778 <.0001
Courseware 0.3589 <.0001 E-mail 0.3410 <.0001 Work 0.2875 <.0001 TV 0.2494 <.0001 Extracurricular 0.2384 <.0001 Other Internet 0.2366 <.0001 Text/Voice 0.2086 0.0001 Phone 0.1574 0.0038 Paper 0.1275 0.0189 SNS 0.1270 0.0191 IM 0.1258 0.0207
Table 3. Correlations between information sources and frequency of experiencing
information overload. Class assignments, courseware, and e-mail were the sources most
closely correlated with a higher frequency of experiencing information overload.
Social Networking Site Usage Behaviors
Most of the respondents had over 300 friends in their profiles, and tended to
visit their profiles at least daily. They would also spend six hours per week or less on
the social networking site, and were actively involved in zero to five groups.
Although there was a very weak correlation between perceptions of SNSs as a source
of information overload and admitted feelings of information overload (ρ=0.1270,
p<0.05), none of the specific behaviors could draw a significant correlation between it
and the perception of SNSs as a source of information overload, nor were there any
behaviors that had a significant correlation directly with the frequency of feeling
information overload. This disproved both aspects of Hypothesis 1, as neither the
frequency, duration (hours per week), nor intensity (profile changes and messages) of
students’ usage of SNSs were significantly correlated with the frequency of feeling
information overload. For the complete statistics, see Table 12 in the Appendix.
Information Overload 20
Variable Spearman ρ Prob>| ρ |
SNS (as a source of
information overload)
0.1270 0.0191
Visit Frequency 0.0612 0.2705
Hours/Wk 0.0612 0.2721
PM/Wall 0.0442 0.4279
Groups 2 0.0360 0.5174
Friends 0.0321 0.5639
Change Frequency -0.0276 0.6204
Table 4. SNS behaviors and how they correlate with experiencing information overload.
There were no significant correlations between usage behaviors and information overload
frequency.
Table 5. How SNS behaviors correlate with the perception of SNSs as sources of
information overload. There were no significant correlations between usage behaviors
and the perception of SNSs as a source of information overload.
Variable Spearman ρ Prob>| ρ|
Friends 0.1020 0.0667
Hours/Week 0.0972 0.0821
Visit Frequency -0.0968 0.0825
Change Frequency 0.0847 0.1287
PM/Wall Posts -0.0710 0.2038
Groups 0.0089 0.8733
Information Overload 21
Coping Strategies for Information Overload
The most common strategy for coping with information overload was filtering
out irrelevant information (91.8%, n=313), followed by multitasking (90.9%, n=311)
and organizing the information (86.2%, n=293). The least commonly employed were
ignoring the information (32.5%, n=111) and delegation (32.7%, n=112). On average,
respondents reported using about six of the ten coping strategies (M=5.96, SD=2.07).
A table with the complete distribution statistics is in the Appendix.
The results of the survey did not support Hypothesis 2; there was no
significant correlation between the number of coping strategies and reported
frequency of feeling information overload (ρ =0.0414, p=0.4451).
Information Overload 22
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Mean 5.9620991
SD 2.0721682
Std Err Mean 0.1118866
upper 95% 6.1821716
lower 95% 5.7420267
N 343
Variable Spearman ρ Prob>|ρ|
“I feel overloaded…” 0.0414 0.4451
Table 6. A distribution of the number of coping strategies employed by students. There
was not a significant correlation between the number of strategies and reported
frequencies of information overload
Information Overload 23
Discussion
When clustered by gender, it is revealed that males do not associate SNSs
with feelings of information overload (ρ=0.070, p=0.510) while females do, to a
slight degree (ρ=0.144, p<0.05). This could be a function of the gender bias of the
sample, as Ellington (2005) showed males reporting a higher incidence of information
overload from technological sources. Also, 92 male respondents may be an
insufficient size to achieve the power necessary to derive any statistically significant
findings. When broken down by GPA, “A” students have a weak but significant
correlation (ρ=0.186, p<0.05) between SNS and feelings of information overload,
while “B” students do not have a significant correlation (ρ=0.089, p=0.292) between
perceptions of SNS and feelings of information overload. This finding could be a
budding indicator of a relationship between need for cognition and feelings of
information overload.
While SNSs are correlated with information overload at about the same rate as
instant messaging, e-mail, classes, and courseware are more strongly correlated with
the frequency of feeling overloaded. These results confirm the findings from
Ellington (2005) and Farhoomand & Drury (2002) that e-mail and organizational
sources rank higher than other sources for information overload. This could lead to
some interesting research into the agency and emotional affect of retrieving
information and its relation to information overload. E-mail, classes, and courseware
tend to “push” information to users, often in great volumes and with no consideration
of the user’s will. SNSs are more of a “pull” phenomenon, where users actively seek
Information Overload 24
out information they wish to know, and derive some social satisfaction for finding it.
Later studies could investigate the “push/pull” dichotomy, incorporating other
technologies such as RSS feeds and intelligent search agents to see if agency plays a
part in feelings of information overload.
n Variable by Variable Spearman ρ Prob>|ρ|
249 Female SNS Feel Overloaded 0.1444 0.0232
92 Male SNS Feel Overloaded 0.0696 0.5099
153 “A” Students SNS Feel Overloaded 0.1855 0.0217
144 “B” Students SNS Feel Overloaded 0.0888 0.2917
Table 7. How gender and GPA correlate with frequency of feeling information overload.
Females and “A” average students have a significant, positive correlation.
Limitations & Extensions
To improve the instrument, I would refine several of the items focused on
social networking site usage habits. For instance, the frequency of logging in, time
spent, and personal messages sent would permit more granular analysis as continuous
variables. I would try to find out what the “Other Internet uses” are that are more
greatly perceived as sources of information overload than SNSs. Another
improvement would be to introduce an ordinal scale to measure the frequency of
employing particular coping strategies, allowing researchers to draw better
correlations between coping strategies and their influence, or lack thereof, on
frequency of feeling information overload. Perhaps most importantly, instead of
relying on an explicit reporting of the frequency of experiencing information
overload, future studies can turn the intensity or frequency of information overload
Information Overload 25
into a latent variable comprising feelings of stress, employment of coping strategies,
and other elements that my obliquely reveal the understanding and experience of
information overload for each respondent. With enough iterations and refinement to
this instrument, researchers could develop a reliable Likert scale to evaluate feelings
of information overload. An index to determine social network site usage intensity,
based on frequency of usage and level of involvement within the SNS, could be
developed to help better answer questions such as those posited in this study. Despite
the flaws in the instrument, the data yielded from this survey still has rich possibilities
for analysis and interpretation.
Other ideas for future research may expand this study to examine factors such
as a student’s major, age, or ethnicity. The survey can also be refined for non-
academic settings to investigate how people in certain professions experience
information overload, and which factors they would cite which contribute to their
feelings of information overload. Researchers may wish to look into how the design
of a user interface may influence experiences and attitudes of information overload in
e-mail clients, social networking site profiles, or courseware systems. Finally, studies
that more closely examine the relationship between need for cognition and
information overload can give us more insight into how a personal disposition can
influence, and be influenced by, the copious amounts of information available
because of modern technology.
Information Overload 26
Conclusion
This study has concluded that social networking site usage behaviors are not
linked with the frequency of experiencing information overload in undergraduate
students. The number of times a respondent logged into his or her profile, how much
time they spent per week on the SNS, and the messaging and other habits enacted on
the sites played no significant role in how respondents perceived SNSs as information
overload triggers. Likewise, the number of coping strategies employed by
respondents had no significant correlation with the frequency of experiencing
information overload. When grouped by gender, female respondents showed a slight
correlation in viewing SNSs as a source of information overload, whereas males did
not exhibit this perception. After clustering respondents by grade point average, there
was a small but statistically significant positive correlation between GPA and
frequency of experiencing information overload.
For a concept that has been studied for more than half a century, information
overload is still a remarkably fertile field for research. Qualitative research can shed
light into what factors contribute to information overload, eventually yielding a way
to measure information overload as a latent variable. User interface designers can find
ways to minimize information overload in their software, and they can capitalize on
other research on how users rely on particular coping strategies in a technological
environment. This specific study can be refined and, eventually, administered to the
general population to gauge just how severe a threat information overload is, how
SNSs contribute to this load, and how best to cope with this unique challenge of the
21st century.
Information Overload 27
We are only human, with finite amounts of time and cognitive capacity to
process nearly infinite amounts of information. Although we have a predisposition to
gather as much information as we can, overindulging in information can be
detrimental to our mental and physical well-being. Social networking sites, which
pique our intellectual curiosity and exploit our social natures, will become major
components in the information habits of upcoming generations. With further
investigation, perhaps we will come to know whether this new form of computer-
mediated communication is more a blessing or a bane when considered in the context
of information overload.
Information Overload 28
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Information Overload 32
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Information Overload 33
Appendix A: Recruitment E-mails
INFORMATIONAL: Participants Needed for Online Study
Do you feel overwhelmed by information? Participants are needed for a study investigating information overload. To be eligible to participate, you must be:
• At least 18 years of age
• Enrolled as an undergraduate at UNC
To participate, complete an online survey at [http://uncodum.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bOCCVT1QjEN65bS&SVID=Prod]. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Four randomly selected participants who complete the survey will each be awarded a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Choosing or declining to participate in this study will not affect your class standing or grades at UNC-Chapel Hill. You will not be offered or receive any special consideration if you take part in this research; it is purely voluntary. This study has been approved by the UNC Behavioral IRB (IRB Study 08-2117; Approval Date: January 16, 2009). For more information, contact John Weis ([email protected]).
Information Overload 34
INFORMATIONAL: Feeling Overloaded? Tell Us About It!
A study investigating information overload in undergraduates is still going on. To be eligible to participate, you must be:
• At least 18 years of age
• Enrolled as an undergraduate at UNC
To participate, complete an online survey at [http://uncodum.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_bOCCVT1QjEN65bS&SVID=Prod]. It takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. Four randomly selected participants who complete the survey for the study will each be awarded a $25 Amazon.com gift card. Choosing or declining to participate in this study will not affect your class standing or grades at UNC-Chapel Hill. You will not be offered or receive any special consideration if you take part in this research; it is purely voluntary. This study has been approved by the UNC Behavioral IRB (IRB Study 08-2117; Approval Date: January 16, 2009). For more information, contact John Weis ([email protected]).
Information Overload 35
Appendix B: Consent Form University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Consent to Participate in a Research Study
Adult Participants
Social Behavioral Form
________________________________________________________________________
IRB Study #___08-2117__________________ Consent Form Version Date: _____01/12/2009_________ Title of Study: Information Overload in University Undergraduate Students Principal Investigator: John Weis
UNC-Chapel Hill Department: SILS
UNC-Chapel Hill Phone number: 966-5042 Email Address: [email protected] Faculty Advisor: Dr. Deborah Barreau Faculty Contact telephone number: 966-5042 Faculty Contact email: [email protected] Funding Source and/or Sponsor: UNC Honors Office Study Contact telephone number: (910) 554-8752 Study Contact email: [email protected] _________________________________________________________________
What are some general things you should know about research studies?
You are being asked to take part in a research study. To join the study is voluntary. You may refuse to join, or you may withdraw your consent to be in the study, for any reason, without penalty. Research studies are designed to obtain new knowledge. This new information may help people in the future. You may not receive any direct benefit from being in the research study. There also may be risks to being in research studies. Details about this study are discussed below. It is important that you understand this information so that you can make an informed choice about being in this research study. You will be given a copy of this consent form. You should ask the researchers named above, or staff members who may assist them, any questions you have about this study at any time.
What is the purpose of this study?
The purpose of this research study is to learn about sources of information overload in undergraduate students’ lifestyles. It will try to determine what role participation in social networking sites has in feelings of information overload, and it will look at strategies students use to cope with information overload.
Information Overload 36
How many people will take part in this study?
If you decide to be in this study, you will be one of approximately 300 people in this research study.
How long will your part in this study last?
The survey should take about fifteen minutes to complete.
What will happen if you take part in the study?
You will complete a survey that features questions about your perceptions of information overload, your social networking site usage habits, and general demographic information.
What are the possible benefits from being in this study?
Research is designed to benefit society by gaining new knowledge. You may not benefit personally from being in this research study.
What are the possible risks or discomforts involved from being in this study?
The research involves no more than minimal risk to subjects. There may be uncommon or previously unknown risks. You should report any problems to the researcher.
How will your privacy be protected?
Participants will not be identified in any report or publication about this study. Although every effort will be made to keep research records private, there may be times when federal or state law requires the disclosure of such records, including personal information. This is very unlikely, but if disclosure is ever required, UNC-Chapel Hill will take steps allowable by law to protect the privacy of personal information. In some cases, your information in this research study could be reviewed by representatives of the University, research sponsors, or government agencies for purposes such as quality control or safety. The survey system used in the study is provided by Qualtrics, Inc. The Qualtrics system maintains data behind a firewall and all data are accessed only by the owner of the survey who must provide password and user id. All pieces of data are keyed to that owner identification and cannot be accessed by anyone other than the owner or, by the owner's request, technical assistance staff. Technical assistance staff include server administrators at Qualtrics who will respond to hardware or software failures, or Teresa Edwards, the UNC administrator for the Qualtrics Software Agreement. Ms. Edwards has completed Human Subjects Research certification at UNC-CH, and will only access survey data at the account owner's request. The Qualtrics system has been used by government agencies, hundreds of universities and in many dissertations involving human subjects and even disadvantaged and at risk populations, including government sponsored studies collecting data about
Information Overload 37
physical and dependency abuse for adults and children. These are extremely confidential studies that have passed the highest level of scrutiny from human subjects committees. If you enter your e-mail address for the Amazon.com gift card drawing, the information will be encrypted and stored in a password-protected file on a USB key accessible only by the researcher. Once the drawing is complete, the file containing the e-mail addresses will be completely erased.
Will you receive anything for being in this study?
After completing the survey, you will have the opportunity to enter a raffle for one of four $25 gift certificates to Amazon.com.
Will it cost you anything to be in this study?
There will be no costs for being in the study
What if you are a UNC student?
You may choose not to be in the study or to stop being in the study before it is over at any time. This will not affect your class standing or grades at UNC-Chapel Hill. You will not be offered or receive any special consideration if you take part in this research.
What if you have questions about this study?
You have the right to ask, and have answered, any questions you may have about this research. If you have questions, or concerns, you should contact the researchers via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected].
What if you have questions about your rights as a research participant?
All research on human volunteers is reviewed by a committee that works to protect your rights and welfare. If you have questions or concerns about your rights as a research subject you may contact, anonymously if you wish, the Institutional Review Board at 919-966-3113 or by email to [email protected].
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Title of Study: Information Overload in Undergraduate Students Principal Investigator: John Weis Faculty Advisor: Deborah Barreau
Information Overload 38
Participant’s Agreement:
I have read the information provided above. I have asked all the questions I have at this time. I voluntarily agree to participate in this research study.
Information Overload 39
Appendix C: Survey
*Information overload is the feeling of receiving too much information to be able
to handle it effectively.
With this definition in mind, indicate how much you agree with the
following statements:
Never Very Rarely Occasionally Frequently Very Frequently
I feel overloaded by the amount of information I have to handle
I have enough time to process the information I need to process
When I perform an internet search, the results are relevant to me
Information that is sent to me is relevant to me
When I perform an internet search, the results are redundant
Information that is sent to me is redundant
How much do you agree that the following items are sources of information overload for you?
Strongly Disagree
Disagree Undecided/Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
Class assignments
Information Overload 40
Courseware Systems (such as Blackboard or Sakai)
E-mail Instant Messaging
Social Networking Sites (such as Facebook or MySpace)
Other Internet use
Newspaper
Television
Phone Calls Voicemail and Text Messaging
Work, internship, or other employment
Extracurricular activities
I handle information overload by
No Yes Don't Know
Ignoring the information presented to me
Filtering out irrelevant information
Eliminating or discontinuing sources of information
Delegating responsibilities for handling the information to
Information Overload 41
others
Multitasking Checking sources of information more frequently
Checking sources of information less frequently
Organizing my information
Consolidating my information in one place
Looking for a technical solution
Do you use any social networking websites (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo,
LinkedIn, etc.)?
Yes No Don't Know
Which of the following social networking websites do you use? Check all that apply.
Bebo
Friendster
MySpace
Windows Live Spaces
Yahoo! 360
Other
How many profiles do you currently have at social networking websites?
0
1
Information Overload 42
2
3
4
5
More than 5
How do you use social networking websites? Check all that apply.
Stay in touch with friends
Make new friends I have never met in person
Find out more about people (I may or may not have met)
Find someone to date
As a forum to express my opinions and views
Share photos, music, videos, or other work
For professional activities (job networking, etc.)
Communicate with classmates about course-related topics
Communicate with instructors about course-related topics
Participate in special interest groups
Plan or invite people to events
Respond to site advertisements
Other
How often do you visit your social networking website profile?
Several times a day
About once a day
Every few days
Once a week
Once a month
Less than once a month
Never/ Don't know
Information Overload 43
How often do you change your profile?
Never
Once a year
Once a quarter/semester
Monthly
Weekly
Several times per week
Daily
Approximately how many hours per week do you use social networking websites?
Less than 1
1-3 hours
4-6 hours
7-10 hours
11-13 hours
14-16 hours
More than 16 hours
How many friends do you currently have at all the social networking websites you use?
None
1–50
51-100
101-200
201-300
301-500
More than 500
How frequently do you send personal messages or wall posts in social
networking websites?
Several times a day
Once a day
Information Overload 44
Several times a week
Once a week
Less than once a week
How many groups do you actively participate in at all the social networking websites you use?
None
1-5
6-10
More than 10
What is your class standing?
Senior or final year
Freshman or first year
Other
Are you currently a full-time or part-time student? Part-time is fewer than 12 credit hours per quarter/semester.
Full Time
Part Time
What is your cumulative GPA?
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C- or lower
Decline to answer
Information Overload 45
What is your gender?
Female
Male
To be eligible for the Amazon.com gift card drawing, please enter your
e-mail address.
Information Overload 46
Appendix D: Statistics Tables
Table 8. Enrollment statistics for the University of North Carolina, Spring 2009
Classification Gender Total
FR F 2243
FR M 1564
JR F 1694
JR M 1143
SO F 2403
SO M 1602
SR F 3440
SR M 2454
Total 16543
Information Overload 47
Information Source Distributions
1
2
3
4
5
Class Assignments Mean 3.6058824
SD 1.0002776 Std Err Mean 0.0542477 upper 95% 3.7125868 lower 95% 3.4991779 N 340
1
2
3
4
5
Courseware
Mean 3.0352941 SD 1.0412955 Std Err Mean 0.0564722 upper 95% 3.1463741 lower 95% 2.9242141 N 340
1
2
3
4
5
Mean 3.4735294 SD 1.170888 Std Err Mean 0.0635003 upper 95% 3.5984337 lower 95% 3.3486251 N 340
Information Overload 48
1
2
3
4
5
Instant Messaging
Mean 2.4674556 SD 1.0280084 Std Err Mean 0.0559163 upper 95% 2.5774445 lower 95% 2.3574667 N 338
1
2
3
4
5
Social Networking Sites
Mean 3.0882353 SD 1.1665861 Std Err Mean 0.063267 upper 95% 3.2126807 lower 95% 2.9637899 N 340
1
2
3
4
5
Other Internet uses
Mean 3.0617647 SD 1.0638924 Std Err Mean 0.0576977 upper 95% 3.1752552 lower 95% 2.9482742 N 340
Information Overload 49
1
2
3
4
5
Newspaper
Mean 2.6342183 SD 1.0272084 Std Err Mean 0.0557903 upper 95% 2.7439582 lower 95% 2.5244784 N 339
1
2
3
4
5
Television
Mean 2.9056047 SD 1.1422227 Std Err Mean 0.062037 upper 95% 3.027632 lower 95% 2.7835774 N 339
1
2
3
4
5
Telephone Calls
Mean 2.620178 SD 1.0050213 Std Err Mean 0.054747 upper 95% 2.7278681 lower 95% 2.512488 N 337
Information Overload 50
1
2
3
4
5
Text Messaging and Voicemail
Mean 2.6135693 SD 1.0524381 Std Err Mean 0.0571606 upper 95% 2.7260046 lower 95% 2.501134 N 339
1
2
3
4
5
Employment
Mean 3.2117647 SD 1.0708706 Std Err Mean 0.0580761 upper 95% 3.3259996 lower 95% 3.0975298 N 340
1
2
3
4
5
Other Extracurricular Activities
Mean 3.1745562 SD 1.0985574 Std Err Mean 0.0597536 upper 95% 3.2920933 lower 95% 3.0570191 N 338
Key 1) Strongly Disagree 2) Disagree 3) Neutral/Undecided 4) Agree 5) Strongly Agree
Table 9. Response distributions to items about information sources
Information Overload 51
SNS Behavior Distributions
1
2
3
4
5
Mean 1.6748466 Std Dev 0.9004849 Std Err Mean 0.0498732 upper 95% 1.7729618 lower 95% 1.5767315 N 326
Visit Frequency 1) Several times a day 2) About once a day 3) Every few days 4) Once a week 5) Once a month 6) Less than once a month 7) Never
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Change Frequency 1) Never 2) Yearly 3) Semester 4) Monthly 5) Weekly 6) SeveralWeek 7) Daily
Mean 3.6984615 Std Dev 0.9882789 Std Err Mean 0.0548198 upper 95% 3.8063093 lower 95% 3.5906137 N 325
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Hours/Wk 1) LessThan1 2) 1-3 3) 4-6 4) 7-10 5) 11-13 6) 14-16 7) 16+
Mean 2.6080247 Std Dev 1.2078422 Std Err Mean 0.0671023 upper 95% 2.7400375 lower 95% 2.4760119 N 324
Information Overload 52
Table 10. Response distributions SNS usage behavior items
2
3
4
5
6
7
Friends 1) None 2) 1-50 3) 51-100 4) 101-200 5) 201-300 6) 301-500 7) 500+
Mean 5.9417178 Std Dev 1.2744744 Std Err Mean 0.0705866 upper 95% 6.0805821 lower 95% 5.8028535 N 326
1
2
3
4
5
Personal Messages and Wall Posts 1) SeveralDay 2) Daily 3) SeveralWeek 4) Weekly 5) LessWeek
Mean 2.9783951 Std Dev 1.2377558 Std Err Mean 0.0687642 upper 95% 3.1136773 lower 95% 2.8431128 N 324
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Activity in Groups 1) None 2) 1-5 3) 6-10 4) 10+
Mean 1.6707692 Std Dev 0.6844217 Std Err Mean 0.0379649 upper 95% 1.745458 lower 95% 1.5960804 N 325
Information Overload 53
Coping Strategy Distributions Ignore
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 231 0.67544 Yes 111 0.32456 Total 342 1.00000
Filter
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 28 0.08211 Yes 313 0.91789 Total 341 1.00000
Eliminate
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 109 0.32059 Yes 231 0.67941 Total 340 1.00000
Information Overload 54
Delegate
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 212 0.62170 Yes 129 0.37830 Total 341 1.00000
Multitask
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 31 0.09064 Yes 311 0.90936 Total 342 1.00000
More Frequent
No
Yes
Response Count Prob No 125 0.36982 Yes 213 0.63018 Total 338 1.00000
Information Overload 55
Frequencies Less Frequent
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 230 0.67251 Yes 112 0.32749 Total 342 1.00000
Organize
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 47 0.13824 Yes 293 0.86176 Total 340 1.00000
Consolidate
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 93 0.27273 Yes 248 0.72727 Total 341 1.00000
Information Overload 56
Technical
No
Yes
Frequencies
Response Count Prob No 185 0.54412 Yes 155 0.45588 Total 340 1.00000
Table 11. Response distributions to coping strategy items
Information Overload 57
SNS Usage Correlations
Nonparametric: Spearman's ρ
Variable by Variable Spearman ρ Prob>|ρ| Plot SNS (as a source) Feel Overloaded 0.1270 0.0191 Visit Frequency Feel Overloaded 0.0612 0.2705 Hours/Week Feel Overloaded 0.0612 0.2721 PM/Wall Posts Feel Overloaded 0.0442 0.4279 Groups 2 Feel Overloaded 0.0360 0.5174 Friends Feel Overloaded 0.0321 0.5639 Change Frequency Feel Overloaded -0.0276 0.6204
Table 12. Correlation tables between SNS usage behaviors and feeling information
overload.
Information Overload 58
Sources and Feelings of Information Overload Nonparametric: Spearman's ρ
Variable by Variable Spearman ρ Prob>|ρ| Plot Class Assignments Feel Overloaded 0.3778 <.0001 Courseware Feel Overloaded 0.3589 <.0001 E-mail Feel Overloaded 0.3410 <.0001 Other Internet Feel Overloaded 0.2366 <.0001 TV Feel Overloaded 0.2494 <.0001 Work Feel Overloaded 0.2875 <.0001 Extr Feel Overloaded 0.2384 <.0001 Text/Voice Feel Overloaded 0.2086 0.0001 Phone Feel Overloaded 0.1574 0.0038 Paper Feel Overloaded 0.1275 0.0189 SNS (as a source) Feel Overloaded 0.1270 0.0191 IM Feel Overloaded 0.1258 0.0207
Table 13. Correlations between information sources and feelings of information overload