• Abstract
• Discussion

Abstract

The rapid growth and transmission of information in the digital age poses new challenges for individuals coping with the onslaught of communications from multiple sources. This research (a) conceptualizes and measures perceived information overload from cyber-based and place-based sources (b) tests the reliability and validity of a newly developed Perceived Information Overload Scale (c) tests hypotheses concerning the psychological and health outcomes of information overload. A repeated-measures panel study design was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the hypothesized two-factor model of perceived information overload, encompassing cyber-based and place-based sources of stimulation. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that higher levels of perceived cyber-based overload significantly predicted self-reports of greater stress, poorer health, and less time devoted to contemplative activities, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and baseline measures of stress and health status. Participants’ sensation-seeking levels were found to significantly moderate the relationships between cyber-based, place-based, and composite perceived information overload and stress.

Discussion

We conceptualized perceived information overload in terms of cyber-based and place-based sources of stimulation and developed scales to measure the impacts of both sources of information overload. These constructs and scales were used to assess the effects of perceived information overload on individuals’ stress, health, and contemplative activity levels. An important goal of the study was to determine whether perceived cyber-based, place-based, and composite information overload measured at an initial time point are predictive of higher stress levels and poorer health status reported several weeks later. It also aimed to establish the incremental predictive validity of the cyber-based and place-based overload constructs. As a conservative and stringent test of the predictive validity of cyber-based, place-based, and composite information overload, baseline measures of individual stress levels and health status were used as covariates in the hierarchical regression analyses to examine the effects of cyber-based and place-based overload on stress and health above and beyond the effects of other life stressors.

This research also evaluated the hypothesized two-factor structure of perceived information overload. The results of the confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for the convergent and discriminant validity of the proposed theoretical constructs. In addition, the study assessed the test–retest reliabilities of the cyber-based, place-based, and composite information overload scales. Statistical analyses indicated that the scales are reliable measures of the cyber-based, place-based, and composite perceived information overload constructs.

In examining the effects of cyber-based overload at Time 1 on individuals’ reported stress levels and health status at Time 2, it was found that higher levels of cyber-based overload predicted higher levels of perceived stress, controlling for other stressful life events, baseline measures of perceived stress, age, gender, and ethnicity. Similarly, individuals experiencing higher levels of cyber-based overload report poorer health status in terms of the frequency and severity of health problems and their subjective feelings about their overall health, controlling for stressful life events and baseline measures of health status. These findings offer initial evidence for the distinct impacts of perceived cyber-based overload on stress and health and the incremental predictive power of the cyber-based overload construct above and beyond the Time 1 covariates.

Neither place-based nor composite information overload was found to significantly predict higher levels of stress while controlling for stressful life events at Time 1. This finding does not necessarily preclude the influence of place-based and composite information overload on individual stress levels. Indeed, a hypothesis for future research is that cyber-based overload mediates the effect of place-based overload on stress. In many contexts, people encounter cyber-based sources of information overload through their activities in physical place-based environments, such as workplaces and homes. Placebased overload at Time 1, however, significantly predicted poorer health measured by the severity of symptoms reported at Time 2, such as stomach problems, difficulty in sleeping, and feeling like crying, controlling for baseline measures of stressful life events and overall health status and age, sex, and ethnicity. Similarly, higher composite information overload from both cyber-based and place-based sources predicted higher frequency and severity of a number of health problems and injuries after controlling for the same variables.

The analyses also revealed a significant moderating effect of sensation seeking levels on the relationship between cyber-based overload and perceived stress. Individuals reporting higher sensation-seeking levels reported lower levels of stress associated with cyber-based overload compared with those reporting lower sensation-seeking levels. Similarly, high sensation seekers were better able to buffer stress associated with place-based and composite information overload compared with low sensation seekers. These findings are consistent with those of Smith et al. (1978) on the moderating role of sensation seeking in the relationship between negative life change and psychological distress.

Another important finding was that individuals experiencing higher levels of cyber-based overload devoted significantly less time to contemplative activities as compared with those reporting lower levels of cyber-based overload, controlling for baseline measures of contemplative activities, age, sex, and ethnicity. This finding highlights the potentially negative after effects of cyber-based sources of overload on individuals’ mental capacity for concentration and self-reflection (cf. Cohen, 1980). Similarly, higher levels of composite information overload predicted lower levels of contemplation controlling for age, sex, and ethnicity and contemplative activities at Time 1. This relationship was not significant for place-based overload, however. It is possible that cyber-based overload mediates the effect of place-based overload on contemplative activity levels. This hypothesis remains to be investigated in future research on the topic.

Overall, the findings from this study suggest that the heightened levels of information overload resulting from people’s increasing use of digital communication technologies may pose certain opportunity costs stemming from their adverse impacts on individuals’ attentional capacities and well-being. Recent studies of knowledge workers indicate that their workplace and organizational routines have become increasingly fragmented, in that they frequently switch between multiple tasks and encounter many interruptions arising from their use on the Internet and wireless communication technologies (Mark, Gonzalez, & Harris, 2005; Mark, Gudith, & Klocke, 2008). Although a number of authors have commented on the potentially disruptive effects of digital communications on individuals’ mental habits and their capacities for concentration and contemplation (e.g., Bowman, 2008; Carr, 2008), there have been few systematic studies of these effects. The present research contributes to the growing debate on these topics by using a repeated-measures panel study design and baseline covariate measures to evaluate the behavioral and health effects of perceived cyber and place-based information overload.

Several limitations of this research must be noted. First, the sample of participants was limited to college students. Although a college student sample was highly appropriate for purposes of studying the potential effects of perceived information overload (because this demographic group tends to be tech savvy and quite familiar with the Internet and mobile communication devices), the extent to which the reported findings are replicable and can be generalized to other populations and settings remains to be investigated. Furthermore, a large proportion of the participants in our sample were Asian, reflecting the large percentage of Asian students attending the university where this study was conducted. It is plausible that culture and ethnicity may influence patterns of Internet use. For example, “Internet addiction” appears to be a growing public health concern in South Korea and China (Block, 2008). Although we controlled for the potentially confounding effect of ethnicity in the regression analyses and all of the reported findings were significant above and beyond the effect of ethnicity on stress and health status, future studies are needed to assess the generalizability of the findings to other populations as well as the interaction effects of ethnicity and perceived information overload on physical and emotional well-being.

Second, although the results offer initial evidence for the incremental validity of the newly developed cyber-based, place-based, and composite Perceived Information Overload Scales, more rigorous tests of incremental validity need to be conducted in future research on information overload. For example, one stringent test of the incremental validity of the cyber-based, place-based, and composite information overload in predicting health status, above and beyond the effects of closely related constructs (such as perceived stress), would be to use hierarchical regression analyses to determine the incremental contribution of the perceived overload scales in predicting criteria other than selfreported stress, such as error proneness or task performance (Hunsley & Meyer, 2003).

Third, although this study provides preliminary evidence for the predictive, convergent, and discriminant validity of the perceived overload constructs and survey scales, it incorporated only self-report data to assess the various predictor and outcome variables. Future studies using both objective and subjective measures of the predictor and outcome variables would help substantiate and extend the findings from this research and provide a more thorough test of construct validity. Fourth, although the theoretical constructs, survey measures, and the observed relationships among them reported in this study are conceptually plausible and we have controlled for potentially confounding variables, the findings do not provide direct evidence of causality.

Limitations notwithstanding, this research contributes new constructs and reliable tools for measuring perceived information overload in terms of two distinct sources: Cyber-based and Place-based stimulation. The reported findings offer initial evidence for the impacts of cyber-based information overload on self-reported stress, health, and contemplative activity as distinct and separate from place-based information overload. Important directions for future research include the design and implementation of longitudinal studies incorporating observational and physiological measures as well as survey and interview protocols to calibrate the joint impacts of cyber-based and placebased overload on physical and emotional well-being.

It is important to gain a more complete understanding of the psychological and health consequences associated with people’s increasing use of digital communication technologies. Some corporations and organizations have become attentive to the issue of information overload in the workplace and have begun developing intervention programs to assist their employees in their efforts to manage an increasing barrage of electronic communications and to improve efficiency. For example, Intel Corporation recently implemented two pilot projects to minimize workplace interruptions and distractions. One such effort focuses on the restriction of emails on certain days and encouraging face-to-face or telephone conversations among coworkers who are colocated. The other effort called “quiet time,” encourages employees to take time off from electronic communication during designated periods on certain days by setting their emails and instant messengers to “offline” and forwarding the phone calls to voice mail (Huff, 2008). Corporations, consultants, and researchers also have established a nonprofit organization called Downloaded from eab.sagepub.com at University of Alabama at Birmingham on December 3, 2012 756 Environment and Behavior 44(6) the IORG to conduct research, build awareness, and define best practices to counter information overload (IORG, 2008).

To the extent that the findings from this study are replicated in future research and shown to generalize across different populations and settings, it will be important to devise new strategies for coping with multiple sources of information overload. Ultimately, it may become necessary for individuals and organizations to scale back or better modulate their use of digital information and communication technologies to achieve a more sustainable balance with their surroundings.