ABSTRACT
This chapter examines several of the negative impacts of information overload that are relevant on both levels. Perhaps the most fundamental place to start is with the trend of attention deficit and the role information plays in driving it. The concept of information overload pre-dates the rise of the Internet and personal computers. When people talk about "information overload" today, it is almost always in the context of the digital realm. A recent survey by LexisNexis of white-collar workers around the world found that information overload is becoming a widespread issue that is affecting productivity and morale. Many who dismiss the idea of information overload do so on the grounds that the phenomenon has been present since the Gutenberg Press first made the technology of the printing press-and thus the power to spread the word-available to the average consumer.
