information overload

Definitions

The inability to process everything one hears and sees; the availability or supply of an excess of information, or a state of stress which results.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“One of the men who has pioneered in information studies, Dr. James G. Miller, director of the Mental Health Research⟳ Institute at the University of Michigan, states flatly that “Glutting a person with more information than he can process⟳ may . . . lead⟳ to disturbance.” He suggests, in fact, that information overload may be related to various forms of mental illness.”

“Some news executives attribute this youthful apathy to information overload and the explosion of media options.”

“But it's often hard to discern the forest for the archaeological trees, partly because archaeology is now so specialized, and also because all of us suffer⟳ from information overload about the past dumped on us by the Web, newspapers, TV specials, and all the apparatus of modern global communications.”

CEFR level