Information and Knowledge Theories
Ali Imanzadeh; Naeimeh Beirampour Basmenj; Maryam Marandi Heidarloo
Abstract
IntroductionOne of the challenges that emerged and is expanding with the emergence of social networks and the growth of rhizome spaces in modern epistemology is information anxiety (Brown & Duguid,2017). The fear and apprehension caused by the abundance of information and lack of logical order is ...
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IntroductionOne of the challenges that emerged and is expanding with the emergence of social networks and the growth of rhizome spaces in modern epistemology is information anxiety (Brown & Duguid,2017). The fear and apprehension caused by the abundance of information and lack of logical order is known as information anxiety. Information anxiety is one of the effects of information overflow (Hartog, 2017). In information anxiety, the type of information is not important and only the amount of information is important (Schick, Gordon & Haka, 1990). Information anxiety is related to attitudes about finding, selecting, processing, interpreting, managing and using information (Conhaim, 2001). With the advent of the Internet, smartphones, and other digital devices, we can quickly and easily access vast amounts of data about any topic imaginable. While this abundance of information has many benefits, it can lead to a situation called "information anxiety" (Shi, 2022). More precisely, information anxiety is a state of worry and stress caused by a large and extensive amount of information that needs to be processed. According to the mentioned cases and also the numerous researches that have been done in the field of information anxiety, the present study aims to investigate and explain the concept of information anxiety, its limits and gaps, the dimensions and components of information anxiety, the consequences of information anxiety and the difference of information anxiety with similar concepts such as anxiety. Library, Internet anxiety, etc. have been systematically reviewed.Literature ReviewThe issue of information anxiety and its destructive effects on individuals and organizations has been discussed since 1605. Sir Francis Bacon probably used this term for the first time in 1915 in his book The Progress of Learning. Later, the term information anxiety was introduced in Richard Worman's best-selling book with the same title (Girard & Allison, 2008). The concept of information anxiety has gone through different stages, including library anxiety, computer anxiety, and internet anxiety. In the meantime, based on the studies, information anxiety has differences with other types of anxiety, including library anxiety, internet anxiety, etc. (Cadier, Ding & El Khazzar, 2021). Information anxiety can have different dimensions and components. In the information anxiety model, de Oliveira et al. (2023) mention information complexity or cognitive overload, fear of losing important information, concerns about the accuracy and quality of information, and limited time as dimensions of information anxiety.MethodologyThis study is a systematic review that was conducted in 1402 and it was investigated to determine the conceptualization of the limits and gaps in the evolution of information anxiety and its dimensions and components. Databases, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct Cinahal, SID, and Magiran were examined. Persian and English languages were used for searching. For this purpose, the keywords: information anxiety, dimensions of information anxiety, and consequences of information anxiety were used in Persian sources and the words Dimensions of information anxiety, and information anxiety, were used in English sources. MESH was also used to determine keywords. In order to determine the appropriateness of the articles with the research topic, first the title and then the abstract of the articles were examined, and after the approval of the article in terms of place of execution, year of implementation and topic, all the texts of the articles were studied by one of the researchers for further examination. Strobe checklist was used to check the quality of descriptive articles. This checklist has 22 parts, which were scored based on the importance of each part according to the present study. The final score of the checklist was 30 and the minimum acceptable score was 20. From the 170 articles found, according to the selection criteria, 24 studies were found to be eligible and included in the present study.ResultsThe findings of the research showed that the concept of information anxiety is ambiguous and its limits are not fully known. Information anxiety actually comes from the growing gap between the amount of available information and our ability to process and understand it, and this type of anxiety is fundamentally different from concepts such as library anxiety and internet anxiety. This type of anxiety has three basic dimensions of information overflow, inability to understand and process information, and inability to access and find available information. Information anxiety has many negative personal, psychological and social consequences such as feelings of disappointment and frustration, feelings of abandonment, loneliness and existential loneliness. There are many ways to overcome information anxiety. What is prominent in information anxiety are the challenges and stresses associated with the sheer volume of information available. In information anxiety, people must have the ability to control their information exposure and actively choose which information sources to interact with. This prevents people from being overwhelmed by irrelevant or unreliable information. By selectively accessing reliable sources and filtering out unnecessary information, people can reduce their information anxiety to some extent.DiscussionWith the tendency of humans to virtual space, which is characterized by information bombardment, the feeling of being abandoned and thrown in the shadow of this information increases. In fact, information anxiety in the shadow of human confusion in organizing knowledge and information and immersing a person in it can fuel the feeling of existential loneliness. Information anxiety, which has arisen in the shadow and context of the rhizomatic growth of social networks and in the context of rhizomatic epistemology, is considered as a threat to human life and can have different physical, social, psychological and even educational consequences for a person. The failure to properly face these threats and failure to control this type of anxiety can affect the quality of a person's life in all its dimensions. Although information anxiety itself is a consequence of some factors, including immersion in virtual space, it can also cause other consequences. Although overcoming anxiety cannot happen in the short term and requires fundamental changes in the epistemological system, ontology and even the individual's value system, these obstacles can be overcome by adopting certain approaches.ConclusionDeveloping information literacy, practicing self-care and setting limits on information consumption and changing epistemological attitudes about information can help reduce feelings and severe stress associated with information anxiety.
