Commentary: Too much COVID-19 information can be disorientating and unnecessarily stressful
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Commentary: Besides much COVID-19 information tin can be disorientating and unnecessarily stressful
The book of information and speed at which things change should lead us to develop amend strategies at managing data overload, say the NTU Centre for Information Integrity and the Internet's Edson C Tandoc Jr, Zhang Hao Goh, Hyunjin Kang and Benjamin Li.
Commuters wearing face expect at their mobile phones in Singapore on Mar xviii, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Catherine Lai)
SINGAPORE: You're scrolling on Facebook and come up beyond a friend's postal service sharing the latest news about COVID-19.
So, you get a WhatsApp alert. Maybe it's the most recent update from gov.sg. Or a forwarded message sent to your family chatgroup about Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong'south address concluding Saturday (Oct 9).
You decide to turn the television on — they're likewise talking about the coronavirus.
This avalanche of information you receive can exist dizzying — updates on number of cases, sad messages from friends or family having to self-isolate and new restrictions in place.
MORE EXPERIENCING Information OVERLOAD IN SINGAPORE
Communication researchers beyond the world are examining COVID-19-induced information overload, concerned near people'due south well-being every bit developments about the pandemic have dominated our lives for almost two years.
Information overload happens when an individual is exposed to a volume of data that exceeds his or her capacity to process.
This may atomic number 82 to various consequences, such as poor call up, a weak agreement of important information or increased lethargy.
In Singapore, a contempo online survey we conducted at the NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Baronial plant some 30 per cent of the polled 674 Singapore citizens and permanent residents written report experiencing COVID-19 information overload.
We're processing information from morn when the daily updates on the gov.sg Whatsapp channel come in to the end of the solar day equally nosotros go to bed.
We found a slight increase in the number of respondents who frequently use news websites in Singapore, up by about 7 percent points from our first survey in December 2022 to our 2d survey this June.
While this is an encouraging evolution, as more than people are reading trusted sources and keeping themselves informed of the latest news, this may besides contribute to increased exposure to information related to the pandemic.
In many ways, Singapore is expected to be more susceptible to information overload, having 1 of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, with some of the fastest speeds, meaning we receive quick and like shooting fish in a barrel access to information within and from outside the land.
Singaporeans are too amid the most active social media users in the globe pre-coronavirus, with this trend ticking up every bit seniors and vulnerable groups are encouraged to go online to fight social isolation.
The 2022 Digital News Written report for Singapore, published by the Reuters Institute for the Written report of Journalism, found 88 per cent of the more than two,000 Singapore residents surveyed in January use WhatsApp, while seventy per cent use Facebook and 73 per cent YouTube.
However on these social media spaces, credible information from regime and heartfelt personal updates appear alongside misinformation on unsafe home remedies, vaccine-related conspiracy theories and more, adding up to a barrage of information too much to handle.
Social media utilize tin exist a blight in trying times as nosotros struggle to cope with a deluge of counsel. In fact, frequent consumption of social media for COVID-xix related updates is the one affair our Baronial survey establish to be linked to college levels of information overload.
Is it time to end persuading people to take the COVID-nineteen vaccine and consider mandates in Singapore? Mind to two infectious diseases skillful weigh in on CNA's Center of the Matter:
DISORIENTATING UPDATES
Volume aside, the type of information we are exposed to can be disorientating.
Nosotros are exposed to tentative and rapidly irresolute COVID-related developments, from the number of cases in intensive intendance and how many are unvaccinated, to dining policies and new rules limiting admission to the unvaccinated with implementation dates and details sometimes also irresolute.
Nosotros may exist searching for specific things. Students and teachers wait out for whether classes will have to go online. Business owners besides have to keep an centre on regulations. However we are also exposed to potentially emotionally taxing personal updates from friends, such equally learning that someone nosotros know has caught the virus.
Some of this data access is intentional. Nosotros watch the morning time news to proceed rails of what's happening, visit Government websites to check on vaccinated travel lanes (VTL), or subscribe to alerts from news outlets and then we're in the know.
But sometimes, nosotros may exist exposed to COVID-related information even if we are non intentionally seeking it or prepared to engage with it. We may exist scrolling to check on our friends' latest social media posts, simply then incidentally run a risk upon a news update nigh the pandemic shared by a friend.
Information OVERLOAD HAS SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS
Information overload may kick in if nosotros find ourselves unable to focus on, or find it hard to empathize new information.
There are serious repercussions. It tin touch our ability to brand informed and careful analysis. Information technology can brand us feel drawn, anxious or frustrated, and even increase our stress levels.
In our recent survey, those who report higher levels of information overload have more negative attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and say they are less probable to continue using TraceTogether if it will no longer exist monitored by authorities.
This echoes our before findings. In a series of surveys conducted in Singapore during the offset few months of the pandemic, those who reported loftier levels of information overload were more than likely to believe in COVID-19 misinformation.
What's likely happening here is our reliance on shortcuts in selecting what to believe in when dealing with information overload, instead of scrutinising each bulletin we encounter.
Headline-skimming is one of the most mutual shortcuts. Still, news headlines tend to focus on what is near contempo or what is most hit.
If headlines go our focus, we may fixate on deaths and rising infection numbers, instead of relevant, actionable data - like when we can register for booster shots.
In another survey we conducted in July across 10 cities in Asia involving some 6,000 respondents, those in cities with higher number of daily cases study being more than fearful.
Relying on shortcuts is what researchers phone call heuristic processing, every bit opposed to a more thoughtful way of engaging with information.
Worryingly, this has been linked to risky behaviours, such equally surrendering to a lack of motivation to undertake protective health behaviours, and conclusion-making based on insufficient or unreliable data.
WHY INFORMATION OVERLOAD MAKES Us SUSCEPTIBLE TO MISINFORMATION
Then what's the correct amount of data? There really is no magic number.
People have different information thresholds. What may be an insufficient for someone may be crossing the information overload threshold for another.
This happens when some require more information to orientate themselves – like a parent concerned about kids needing to shift into abode-based learning while also interested in whether the family unit of four can swallow together outside.
We don't relish information overload, and then we commonly try to manage information technology. Some exercise that by tuning out completely, what some communication researchers call data avoidance.
Tuning out, all the same, risks missing out on of import and urgent data - like the news that those unvaccinated, with some exceptions, won't be able to head into shopping malls anymore from Oct nineteen onwards.
Others engage in data scanning – fugitive seeking out information and simply attending to relevant updates.
Scanning, however, makes us pay attending to simply news of interest to us or are already consistent with our beliefs because they require less endeavour to think about.
CHOOSE YOUR INFORMATION SOURCES Advisedly
So what tin we do?
First, when information technology comes to COVID-19 data, prioritise trusted, reliable sources to rely on when personal bandwidths are limited.
Focus on legitimate information sources, such as authoritative health experts who study scientific evidence and news organisations accountable for the information they provide.
Relying on the tsunami of information on social media can push u.s.a. to utilize mental shortcuts and become more susceptible to misinformation.
Some posts on social media attribute inaccurate claims and false information to "doctors" to announced more apparent, merely upon closer scrutiny and vetting, these figures referred to turn out to be either fictitious or misquoted.
Fact-checking resources online, like Factually and Blackdot research, routinely flag and debunk such posts, but very few of us bank check them on a regular basis.
TAKE SOCIAL MEDIA BREAKS
Second, have regular social media breaks.
Nosotros tend to use social media to escape from the daily grind. Nosotros're tired from working? Nosotros scroll through Facebook. We're bored? We turn to TikTok. Nosotros want to procrastinate from our assignments? We check Instagram or YouTube.
But seeking amusement from these platforms exposes us to more things contributing to information overload.
Engaging in a social media detox once every i or two weeks tin can alleviate information overload. Shunning social media completely isn't a solution when nosotros use such platforms to connect with family and friends as gatherings are still express.
Finally, while it will help if we filter out information we consider unnecessary, nosotros as well don't desire to filter out data that may challenge our pre-existing beliefs.
We shouldn't engage just with agreeing people and sources. We demand to be mindful that staying within our social silos may also hamper the extent to which we empathise others.
For instance, if nosotros are unsure almost getting the vaccine, we should non talk just to those unsure or against it, even if this may exist comforting. Talk to doctors and inquire others who have gotten the vaccine.
We shouldn't let information overload atomic number 82 the states to becoming close-minded.
Edson C Tandoc Jr is an Acquaintance Professor and Associate Chair for Enquiry at the NTU Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) and the Managing director of the Centre for Information Integrity and the Internet (IN-cube) .
Zhang Hao Goh is a Post-doctoral Inquiry Fellow at IN-cube, specialising in homo cognitive responses and their coping behaviours toward threats.
Hyunjin Kang is an Banana Professor at WKWSCI and a member of IN-cube. She examines the psychological furnishings of interactive communication technologies.
Benjamin Li is an Assistant Professor at WKWSCI and a member of IN-cube. His research centres on the furnishings of advice and media technologies on human behaviour and psychology.
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