Information Overload

It’s everywhere!  The bells and whistles on your phone sending you notifications.  The endless signs, flashing billboards, politicians up for election.  Hey!  It’s tax season, I just waved at someone dressed up as the Statue of Liberty trying to tug at my patriotic heart strings to hand over my personal information so this company can do my taxes.  You can’t stand in line at a grocery store without looking over and seeing the latest gossip all over magazine covers.  You listen to random conversations around you and hear people chiming in on all the latest news topics.  Kids have become mini-marketers posting video ads for toys that collect thousands of views and make thousands of dollars.  It’s hard to avoid.  Media is everywhere, and it influences our daily lives from the things we buy to the things we try to the things we think about daily.

We are living in a world of information overload as we are continuously inundated with information everywhere we turn, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  On the one hand, it’s impressive and inspirational to see people turn into designers, architects and celebrity chefs through clever social media marketing.  On the other hand, there is no off button to reduce the constant influx of horrifying news stories, the fixation on the dangers of humanity and the harmful effects of misinformation.  We live in a world where our days are filled with impressive home hacks and quick recipes to horrifying scenes of mass shootings and endless propaganda aimed at dehumanizing humanity.  Between all that chaos we are inundated with ads that distinctly target our desires.  It can be unnerving to know that every click we make is monitored and tracked for companies to present us with money saving deals and headlines.

Our minds race between wanting to create something great for dinner to thinking about the latest technological wizardry available for purchase to wanting to build a bomb shelter for our family to hide in until the persistent threats broadcast on the news no longer haunt us.  It’s a horrible play on our emotions.  With so much coming at us at such a fast pace it’s easy to feel like everything is out of our control.  I can understand why many people want to disconnect and close their eyes to the constant influx of information.  But are we truly helpless in a society inundated with media frenzy and rapid-fire information?    Absolutely not.

It’s important for members of society to recognize that our eyes are valuable to media outlets.  We are the targeted audience.  We must not allow our time and attention to be devalued.  By having a better understanding of media in all forms we can better prepare ourselves and our families to be wise consumers and efficient users of media. Critical viewing skill and media literacy skills should be viewed as being important for the safety and benefit of society.  Media in all forms has helped movements, created a world where we can connect with each other, but it has also promoted wars and hatred through repeated coverage with poor framing.

It’s imperative that our society, as audience members of media outlets, advocate for media literacy and critical viewing skills across the board for all ages.  In doing so, we can give society members the tools needed to protect ourselves from being inundated with unnecessary information, incorrect information and harmful information.  By promoting media literacy and critical viewing skills, we can begin to re-shape the way information is relayed and consumed to encourage a healthier media dynamic.

Arke (2005), showed a positive relationship between media literacy skills and critical thinking skills with quantitative data.  This study shows a correlation that many textbooks have previously only assumed.  Given this information, it’s important to work on expanding such studies to create effective interventions aimed at increasing media literacy skills throughout the lifespan.  With the reality of an ever-expanding age of information upon us, we can no longer choose to just disconnect from media outlets.  We must take proactive steps to ensure that society members are able to work through the information being spun daily.  As a society, whose attention is valuable to many media outlets, our increased media literacy skills can help shape the way media sources produce information.

Mingoia, Hutchinson, Gleaves & Wilson (2019), created a pilot study on the effects of media literacy on female university students.  They wanted to see if media literacy training would affect their opinion on tanning.  After providing media literacy training to participants for two weeks, the study showed that participants who received media literacy training experienced less internalization of tanning as being ideal for appearances.  Participants were less likely to become influenced by the allure of tanning which could have harmful effects such as skin cancer.  This study reflects the way media literacy skills increase critical thinking skills which in turn can help media audiences become more cautious consumers of media.  Media literacy skills can help prompt people to stop and really think about what is being seen, read or heard on media outlets before internalizing any negative or incorrect messages.  It’s a very important skill to have in our times.

It’s important to recognize that as members of a media loaded society, we are all responsible for media literacy and critical viewing skills.  We must remain vigilant in our own actions and avoid the bystander effect by choosing to be part of solutions that can change the system of media that many of us feel overwhelmed by.  Aside from advocating for media literacy in institutions through legislation, we must embrace our own responsibility of increasing media literacy around us.  We must be vigilant in our own actions and not diffuse responsibility to other people or institutions.  We all have a hand in this together.

The first thing we need to do is to encourage communication with each other.  When a person references a topic, they’ve seen broadcast on the news or something they saw on social media, we can encourage critical thinking by asking questions about it.  Encourage our friends, family and children to ask questions about the topic, the outlet that presented the topic, discuss the prospective of this topic and whether it’s positive or negative.  Use these moments as teachable moments with everyone.  Relate the topic to everyday life and everyday people.  Discuss implications of what was presented and how it was presented to offer a different perspective.  Model critical thinking skills by using critical thinking skills when talking about topics that tend to be hyper-propagandized.  When someone is exhibiting bias because of something on social media or on the news, don’t be afraid to call it out.  Encourage people to look for multiple sources of information to try to verify information.  We all play a role in influencing each other and by modeling critical thinking during conversations about things seen in various media outlets we can encourage media literacy skills in those around us.

It is well within our power and our right to be proactive in creating a solution to the information overload we all experience.  It’s part of our responsibility as a society to advocate for media literacy education to give society members the necessary tools needed to be critical consumers of media in all forms.  As more people in our society become critical consumers of the information provided by media outlets, it can change the dynamic of the media outlets themselves.  If we arm ourselves with the media literacy and critical thinking skills necessary to thrive in a world of information overload, we can reject misinformation and deter media sources that can be harmful.  In doing so, we could proactively change the way media sources are vying for our attention and shift it in a healthier pattern for everyone.

 

 

References:

Arke, E. (2005). Media Literacy and Critical Thinking: Is There a Connection? (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/9

Media Literacy Now. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://medialiteracynow.org/your-state-legislation/

Mingoia, J., Hutchinson, A. D., Gleaves, D. H., & Wilson, C. (2019). The impact of a social media literacy intervention on positive attitudes to tanning: A pilot study. Computers in Human Behavior,90, 188-195. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.004

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019).  PSYCH 424 Lesson 9: Media/Communications Technology  Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1973019/modules/items/25635718

Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Los Angeles: Sage.

1 comment

  1. Hello,

    First, I’d like to say well done! I enjoyed reading your post, and I agree with a lot of the points that you brought up. It’s true that the news can overwhelm us or stress us out to the point of sickness from the constant barrage of crazy headlines. When the news is especially negative, whether it’s covering a mass tragedy or upsetting details about the future of our country, our brains are more sensitive or attuned to negative news, known as the negativity bias (Heid, 2018). Additionally, it’s not always the negative stuff that overwhelms us, as you pointed out. We tend to get caught up in how much is available to us and how quickly it becomes available.
    I liked that your organized your post by first talking about how we live in the “world of information overload”, but then followed up by saying we are not helpless despite how it might seem that way. You proposed many good ideas to combat this issue, especially prioritizing media literacy in society. Also, I liked that you pointed out that we cannot just “disconnect” from media as a solution, because the reality is that media is everywhere and our society needs to learn how to navigate through it.

    Reference
    Heid, M. (2018) You asked: Is it bad for you to read the news constantly?. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://time.com/5125894/is-reading-news-bad-for-you/

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