Antecedents and Consequences of Information Overload in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The global outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 2020 has significantly affected the information environment as well as the daily life of individuals across the world, with information about COVID-19 dominating all media channels. The information provided at the time of a health crisis like COVID-19 is critical in helping people learn about the disease and the recommendations to prevent infection. However, studies have shown that when people are overwhelmed by too much information (referred to as ‘information overload’), this leads to adverse effects. This study examined the antecedents and consequences of information overload in the context of COVID-19. A survey was conducted among 627 residents in Seoul, South Korea, one of the earliest affected countries in the global outbreak. The results showed that cognitive capacity and the frequency of online news use and interpersonal communication were significant predictors of information overload. Information overload influenced how information is processed; it was associated with the tendency toward greater heuristic processing and less systematic processing. In addition, people were more likely to enact prevention behaviors when the information was processed systematically, as opposed to heuristically. The results are discussed considering both the theoretical and practical implications.

“You Are Not Alone”–Opportunities and Challenges for University Students’ Collaborative Engagement When Dealing With Online Information About COVID-19

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people experienced information overload (Hong and Kim, 2020;Mohammed et al, 2021), which in health information-related contexts is often defined as the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information (Jensen et al, 2014). Importantly, information overload can also be felt when information about COVID-19 is provided offline via broadcast-in this case, people have little control over what information they take in compared to when they seek information on social media (Mohammed et al, 2021).…”

“…Importantly, information overload can also be felt when information about COVID-19 is provided offline via broadcast-in this case, people have little control over what information they take in compared to when they seek information on social media (Mohammed et al, 2021). During the pandemic, people often consumed information from several sources-such as broadcast in addition to social media-and often on a daily basis or even every minute, which can increase feelings of information overload (Hong and Kim, 2020;Motta Zanin et al, 2020;Mohammed et al, 2021). One's perceived information overload can also be specifically related to one's actions: For instance, students and university staff who felt overwhelmed by the amount of information they read on COVID-19 also felt less self-efficient in terms of taking measures to avoid COVID-19 (Farooq et al, 2020).…”

“…However, current research on coping online in the context of SNS indicates that the mere use of SNS may also induce stress and may lead to emotional exhaustion or even increase the perceived information overload (Lim and Choi, 2017;Hong and Kim, 2020). Nonetheless, users who have high levels of coping resources (such relying on others to make them feel better or trying to get advice) have shown they can better manage the stress brought on by SNS (Lim and Choi, 2017).…”

“…During the beginning of the pandemic, students' success in sourcing information about COVID-19 was confronted with various challenges, such as their perceived overload of information about COVID-19 (e.g., Hong and Kim, 2020), their emotional reactions caused by any conflicting information about COVID-19 (e.g., Mason et al, 2017;Ferrara et al, 2020), as well as any feelings of loneliness or anxiety at large, which may have been caused, for example, by government measures instituted to prevent the spread of the virus (Beaunoyer et al, 2020;Miller, 2020;Awoke et al, 2021). Accordingly, in this study we investigate students' engagement with conflicting information about COVID-19 by considering not only indicators for their cognitive engagement but also for their emotional engagement with this information.…”

“…However, since during the pandemic it was likely that students did not engage with information purely rationally, detached from any emotional reactions, this study also focuses on students' emotional engagement with the information (Mason et al, 2017) as well as on whether collaboration as applied to seeking social support has an impact on their perceived coping strategies (Lim and Choi, 2017). Given the research on online support seeking as a coping strategy, taking part in a community and receiving forms of social support may prevent feelings of stress and loneliness during a crisis (e.g., the pandemic) (Procentese et al, 2020;De Los Santos et al, 2021); but, online coping may also induce stress or even increase the perceived information overload (Hong and Kim, 2020). This leads to our second research question: RQ2: How do students emotionally engage with conflicting information about COVID-19 in an individual compared to a collaborative reflection setting, and how does the setting affect students' perceived coping strategies as well as their communicative reflection behavior?…”