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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Change and Information Overload. The Effects
Change places strain on both people and organizations. Alivin Toffler conducted a detailed study of the effects of the acceleration of change and its psychological effects in his book "Future Shock". In this book he coined the phrase " future shock syndrome" he equates the rapid changes in modern life to that of people who have been exposed to disaster or war. This may result in a feeling of helplesness and inadequacy. What is even more interesting is that the Pyschological tool " The Life Change Scale " (Holmesand Rahe in 1967 ) which is a questionnaire designed to measure the amount of changes a person has experienced over a given time found that individuals with high life change scores where more likely to fall ill. More surpprising was that it turned out that illness correlates with all change both positive and negative.
Change affects our physical state evidently through its effects on our mental state. The emotional reaction associated with change is first of all arousal. This a priori neutral state may develop either into a positive feeling, as when novelty elicits curiosity, excitement and wonder, or into a negative one, as when lack of understanding triggers confusion, tension and fear. However, the longer such arousal is sustained, the more likely it is that interest will wear off and fatigue will set in. If a person does not manage to find an adequate response to the novel stimuli, he or she will experience loss of control and distress.
In animals the instinctive reaction to stress is fight , flight or fright. The corresponding human emotion's are numbing apathy, despair and depression, which are all charaterized by helplessness. A short term reaction is agression which by its nature cannot be sustained for long. However anxiety and fear can be constantly present. Fear is directed at a specific target whereas anxiety is generalized and results in the expectation that something bad will happen. This seems to be the most likely resopnse to the continuing experience of unpredictable and uncontrolled change. The long term effects of this are more likely to be apathy and depression.
It seems that society as a whole is subjected to these negative changes and this is evident in current patterns of social behaviour. Agression which is directed at no one in paticular is common place in the world we live in. Vandalism and the seeming increase of mass killings of innocent bystanders by individuals for no apparent reason. The huge increase in drug addition and the increasingly common " burn out " syndrome. The most common syndrome in present society is anxiety and recent studies suggest that 1 in 3 people are suffer's. This is magnified by the media's bad news.
On a socio-economic level anxiety manifests in the growing feeling of insecurity. The fear of agression tends to increase more quickly than actual crime.Goverments complain about the lack of confidence even when economic conditions are good. "Consumer confidence " is needed to boost sales however uncertainty makes people save. This results in job loss. This anxiety by society is also reflected in people's lack of trust in Goverment institutions and authority. Media's extensive reporting on the negative aspects such as corruption , professional misconduct and abuse of power results in even more anxiety.
Another cause of the growing feeling of uncertainty is the erosion of existing belief and religious systems. Belief systems provide people with a system of ethics and values and give meaning to life. Developments in science culture and society have invalidated many of the assumptions underlying these traditional systems. The result is they have lost most of their authority. Due to the fact that no new systems of belief or any that are hugely significant or influential have emerged has resulted in people having lost their sense of direction and confidence in the order of things. Research indicates that feelings of insecurity and distrust are strongest among people who have lost faith in religion or ideology.
The effect of this acceleration of change is the increase in information needed to keep up with these developments. This in turn leads to psycological problems and the resultant physical and social problems. A part of the problem is that technological advances have made the retrieval, distribution and production of information so much easier. Their is no more natural selection process and one has to now sift through the often unclear irrelevant and inaccurate data. This "data smog" is the equivilent of pollution. Information was in the past considered scare and having more was always considered a good thing. Now we seem to have reached a point of saturation.
The key to both success as well as efficient and stress free use of data is to ensure that you devise a system to filter through the "data smog". Technology has massive benefits for society if used correctly and part of this will be a new generation of businesses that work in conjunction with society to filter our the irrelevant information. As a business owner and user of technology it is also one's responsibilty to ensure that what you put across to your clients is concise accurate and in the shortest and most simplistic way possible. Technology also has a huge role to play in moulding and changing society for the better. However it will have to be used cautiously and responsibly.
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