The Communication Revolution Part 1 - Information Overload

With the Communication Revolution going on today many of us suffer information overload or management issues from time to time.  Information overload and/or inefficient management of communication carries a cost.  This post is part 1 of a series described here.  If you haven't read that it may help to go do so to set the stage and context for the follow-on posts.  This series of posts is regarding the communication revolution and where new Unified Communication solutions that are needed as a result.

What is information overload?  This link gives good background on the problem.
Using myself as an example, let's take a look at my communications inflow to get an idea of what information overload can be.

• Email - I get ~100-150 work emails and ~20 personal emails per day.  This may be light compared to some of you out there 

• Voice calls and voice mail - I receive ~ 20 calls per day on average.  Of those, roughly 50-75% wind up in voice mail on my desk or mobile.  In addition, 50% or more are actually received on my mobile phone rather than at my desk or home

• Instant Messages - I receive ~20 Instant Message (IM) "sessions" per day which amount to dozens or nearing 100 IM notes 

• Social Networking - I am active on some of the social networks as they are a good channel for enterprise workers.  Click here for some of the reasons why.   I follow many Twitter streams around UC, information overload, new technology and product announcements, innovation and more.  These streams are in the hundreds per day.  That doesn't even count the stream for specific people I follow. 

• Communities of Interest - Personally I am interested in certain music and fishing on-line communities.  At the moment these communities have their own guest board and messaging scheme.  Yet another place for me to check for information and messages!  I'm trying to convince them to move to Facebook or Twitter to at least remove this separate network.

 If I look back just five years ago, the IM mode and real-time social network feeds virtually didn't exist.  Online communities and web sites existed but have continued explosive growth.  Can you think of any business or club that doesn't have a web site, mailing list, guest book? 

So what's the problem? 

I don't claim that this list is complete but I include the following descriptions or "symptoms" of information overload:

• Inability to see/read the information you are receiving given the amount you receive on your device.  With so much coming at me, as described above, the probability of me seeing or knowing what contains true information I want to see, or requires response or action, is very low.  If you don't see or read it, it's not information!
• Social networks - On some topics the Twitter streams are so active there's high probability of missing and not having time to review the keyword stream or lists  history for "relevant" information.  The information directed to me by name is the only information I'm guaranteed to see.  Who knows what valuable information I missed completely or didn't see at all.
• Emails - reading emails takes time.  Many can be scanned by source/title and discarded in a couple seconds.  Others, if relevant, 15-60 sec to read and to absorb it's information.  Sometimes longer. Those requiring action or response can take many minutes.   Depending on how you process your in-box, you may have delay in seeing or acting on something more important.
• Voice mail is often the least likely to attract my attention.  Visual voice mail allows me to scan the whole in-box much like an email box which is a help.  Again, depending on when I get around to it, and usually having to listen to them for content regardless, important information or responses to requests can be delayed.
• Feeling of anxiety and helplessness that you are "missing" useful information or not responding to the right communications in a timely manner. 
• With so much information available to us studies have discussed the negative effects of so much information.  Inefficiency, fatigue, anxiery are among the topics mentioned.  Click here for one example post covering it.  In addition some are showing that we feel pressured to take advantage of this "information".  Pressure to multi-task our communication channels thereby impacting focus.  Feelings of guilt if you don't look at all the RSS, blogs, search results that you receive.  Do you feel you have to look at your emails, feeds, social networks, all the time for fear of "missing" something, or, just because "it's there"?  Do you feel like you need to constantly monitor your incoming communication and reply as immediately as possible?  You may suffer information overload syndrome - especially check out the video it contains.
• Interruption of thought process - phone calls or other communications can be an interruption that has a cost of getting "back in the groove" afterwards.   
• There you are, deep in thought on a technical article you are reviewing or a detailed response to an email.  Out of the corner of your eye you notice a new email from a blog you follow, or an IM from a colleague.  You open it, begin a session or to read the blog.  Before you know it 10 minutes have gone by.  You finish the session and head out for a cup of coffee.  You return to your desk, sit down, and say to yourself "now what was I doing?".  I read one study where this was quantified but unfortunately didn't save the link.  If I recall correctly, studies showed it took as long as 2-5 min to fully return to a deep thought groove if interrupted.   I'll add it if I find it.

I've written before on tips and suggestions to reduce information overload - link.   Later on in this series of posts I'll get to specific ideas and directions in Unified Communication and communication device enhancements to help divert the "deep impact" asteroid.

Link to Part 2 - Social Behavior Impacts
Link to Part 3 - Social Networking For The Enterprise
Link to - What Unified Communications Can Do - Part 1