What Is The Relationship Between Infoxication And Anxiety?
Everyone wants to be well informed. Knowing what is happening in the world is a right and, depending on what situations, it is in our best interest to stay informed to form our own opinion and act accordingly.
However, more does not mean better. Too much information can confuse us, exhaust us psychologically and cause anxiety as we don’t know who to believe or if we are missing something.
In a hyperconnected world like the one we find ourselves in, it is difficult not to fall into information overload or infoxication. Next We will delve into this concept of infoxication and see what its relationship is with anxiety.
Not long ago we lived in a seemingly simpler world. There were no more than ten channels on TV, the newspapers told what had happened yesterday and the messages were sent handwritten in letters that took days or weeks to reach the recipient.
The world today is completely different. With the evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) All kinds of information reaches us, immediately and from anywhere in the world. The news and newspapers report, instantly, what is happening on the other side of the world, receiving the news a few seconds after it has happened.
And not just for the news. Mobile phones, instant messages and social networks allow us to be in constant contact with others. Before, he would meet someone in person to update us on what had happened to him or, if he couldn’t meet in person, we would make a call or exchange letters. Nowadays that is no longer so necessary because, since everything is shared on social networks, we quickly know what is happening to our loved ones without even having to ask them, and at that moment.
There is no doubt that ICT is of great help and that being more informed is beneficial, but it also has its drawbacks. Our new way of living, hyperconnected and receiving information instantly, It can harm us psychologically and cause great stress and anxiety. Being bombarded with all kinds of data and, on top of that, feeling uncomfortable every time we miss something, gives rise to a peculiar psychological condition that experts have decided to call “infoxication.”
Infoxication is a neologism that combines the words “information” and “intoxication.”. It has other alternative names that give us clues as to what it is: “information overload”, information anxiety, information fatigue, information overdose and infobesity.
It is estimated that between the birth of writing, in the 4th millennium BC, until the year 2000, five exabytes (trillions of megabytes of information) were created. Just after a decade, in 2011, that same amount of information was created every two days. Today, Such an amount of information is created after a few hours. This is due to the democratization of the Internet and information generation tools, from laptops to smart phones.
The phenomenon of infoxication is rampant in part because we are all good producers of information. From our cell phones and computers it is relatively easy for us to generate new material. Since we live in a world in which the instruments for producing information are better than the instruments for organizing and searching for it, It is difficult not to be a victim of infoxication and fall into intense anxiety in the face of so much data.
Infoxication occurs when the information we receive is much greater than what we are capable of processing. In the hyperconnected world in which we live, this phenomenon is common because with e-mails, instant chats, social networks, smart phones and other ICTs, we risk receiving an overdose of information that is not easy to process and destroys our sanity.
The constant input of information in an “always on” world leads us to not being able to deal with any information in depth. When the information is too much we resort to superficial analyzes and diagonal readings. Really, we would like to do a more in-depth analysis of the data we receive but, since there is so much of it and we have so little time, In the end we evaluate them in a very superficial way, which frustrates us and makes us feel very dissatisfied.
Infoxication worsens our ability to analyze information that causes us anxiety and, in turn, makes us worse at analyzing the data we want to analyze. It is a vicious cycle, a process that becomes increasingly toxic if we do not put a stop to it and that increases the risk of us making bad decisions by not knowing well what data to deal with. It is the perfect breeding ground for believing fake news, which poses a great risk.
Infoxication carries with it several symptoms, in addition to the anxiety and frustration itself: disorientation, lack of attention and concentration, memory problems, impaired analytical ability indecision, dispersion, impatience, perception of loss of time, impulsivity and poor selection of information.
Other symptoms of infoxication are the need to stay connected to information sources all day, for fear of missing something (FOMO or “Fear Of Missing Out”). The person wants to be as up-to-date as possible in terms of current information, both world news and the status of those they know, which makes them compulsively consult websites, social networks, and instant messaging chats. It’s like she’s addicted to information, and she wants more and more.
How to avoid anxiety due to information overload?
For centuries, we have associated more information with more freedom. Nowadays we have access to more information, more options to choose from but, ironically, we do not feel freer or more satisfied. The anxiety caused by excess information takes away our well-being, and without well-being one cannot feel truly free.
Although we live in a hyperconnected world and will continue to live in it, all is not lost. It is possible to avoid being a victim of infoxication. It’s good to be documented, but Sometimes you need to get away from the noise of social networks and mainstream media a little, like television. We have the right to be informed, but we also have the right to not want to be. Too much information burns us out, causes us too much anxiety and we have every right in the world to put a barrier to it.
The physical and mental energy we invest to obtain the correct information is wasted if we do not do something useful with it and, no matter how much time we invest, we always get the impression that something is missing, which frustrates us and causes us greater anxiety. . Information is essential in modern life, but its excess overwhelms us and makes it impossible for us to process it as we cannot analyze it in depth. At the end of the day, it is best to select it, avoid being overexposed to the information. Less is more.
Quantity is not synonymous with quality. We must choose to document ourselves through reliable means, and avoid those of which we are not sure of their informative rigor. True, they may be right, but we don’t want to be overinformed. With little information sometimes it is more than enough to know what is happening. And very importantly, we must filter and critically view the information that comes to us, without strictly believing what they tell us.
