OVERLOADING IN LOCKDOWN: EFFECTS OF SOCIAL, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION OVERLOADS IN COVID-19 DAYS

Yıl 2021, Cilt: 6 Sayı: 1, 329 - 342, 01.05.2021

Kemal Elciyar

https://doi.org/10.47107/inifedergi.872896

Cited By: 3

Öz

Many technologies such as Internet, smart tools, social networks have been involved in human life. This increasing prevalence of social networks leaves users facing an overwhelming amount of information, messages, sharing, and social demand. This excess amount is defined as overload. The amount of information constantly flowing in users’ networks, social support and communication requests from others can cause fatigue. Overload in social networks can have behavioral and psychological consequences. In this study, a model was used in the context of the SSO (Stress-Strain-Outcome) framework and the changes caused by social, communication and information overloading in an individual’s attitudes and behaviors were examined. The research was applied in survey technique and 274 participants’ responds analyzed in this study that examined the experiences of social network users during the Covid-19 process. Outliers in the data are arranged by Mahalanobis distance. Before the use of the scales, factor analyses were performed and their validity was measured. According to the results, only information overload has a significant effect on fatigue. Social and communication overloads do not significantly affect fatigue. Fatigue, on the other hand, has a significant relationship with discontinuous intentions. Users who experience information overloading may experience discontinuous intentions towards social networks. However, it cannot be said that social and communication overloads have caused discontinuous intentions. Although users have high averages in social overload and communication overload, it does not cause fatigue in social networks. Users who have to stay in homes, especially during the quarantine period, can continue to spend time on social networks, despite overloads. In terms of gender, women were found to feel more overloaded on social networks. Women experience more communication, information and social overload. In addition, the fatigue and discontinuous intentions averages are significantly higher.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Information Overload, Social Overload, Communication Overload, Social Networks, Covid-19

OVERLOADING IN LOCKDOWN: EFFECTS OF SOCIAL, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION OVERLOADS IN COVID-19 DAYS

Öz

İnternet, akıllı araçlar, sosyal ağlar gibi birçok teknoloji son yıllarda insan hayatına dahil olmuştur. Sosyal ağlar bu teknolojik araçların en önemlilerindendir. Sosyal ağların artan bu yaygınlığı, kullanıcıları başedemeyecekleri, işleyemeyecekleri miktarda bilgi, mesaj, paylaşım ve sosyal taleple karşı karşıya bırakmaktadır. Bu başedilemeyecek miktarda akış, aşırıyükleme olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Kullanıcılar ağlarında sürekli akan bilgi miktarından, diğerlerinden gelen sosyal destek, iletişim gibi taleplerden yılgınlık yaşayabilmektedir. Sosyal ağlarda aşırıyüklenme, davranışsal ve psikolojik sonuçlar doğurabilmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Stres-Zorlanma-Çıktı (SSO: Stress-Strain-Outcome) çerçevesi bağlamında bir model kullanılmış ve bireyin tutum ve davranışlarında sosyal, iletişim ve bilgi aşırı yüklenmesinden kaynaklanan değişiklikler incelenmiştir. Araştırma tarama modelinde uygulanmıştır ve Covid-19 sürecinde sosyal ağ kullanıcılarının deneyimlerini inceleyen bu çalışmada 274 katılımcının cevapı analiz edilmiştir. Verilerdeki aykırı değerler, mahalanobis uzaklığı ile düzenlenmiştir. Veriler değerlendirilmeden önce faktör analizleri yapılmış ve geçerliliği ölçülmüştür. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, sadece bilgi aşırıyüklenmesinin ağ yılgınlığı üzerinde anlamlı bir etkisi vardır. Sosyal ve iletişim aşırıyüklemeleri ağ yılgınlığını anlamlı bir şekilde etkilememektedir. Ağ yılgınlığı, diğer taraftan, devam etmeme niyeti ile anlamlı bir ilişkiye sahiptir. Artan ağ yılgınlığı, devam etmeme niyetini artırmaktadır. Bilgi aşırıyüklemesi yaşayan kullanıcılar, sosyal ağlara yönelik devam etmeme niyeti yaşayabilmektedir. Bununla birlikte, sosyal ve iletişim aşırıyüklemelerinin devam etmeme niyetine yol açmadığı görülmüştür. Kullanıcılar her ne kadar sosyal aşırıyükleme ve iletişim aşırıyüklemesinde yüksek ortalamalara sahip olsalar da sosyal ağlara yönelik yılgınlığa neden olmamaktadır. Özellikle karantina döneminde evlerde kalmak zorunda olan kullanıcıların yapacakları şeylerin sınırlı olması, aşırıyüklemelere ragmen sosyal ağlarda vakit geçirmeye devam edebilmektedir. Cinsiyet açısından ise, kadınların sosyal ağlarda daha fazla aşırıyükleme deneyimlediği tespit edilmiştir. Kadınlar daha fazla iletişim, bilgi ve sosyal aşırıyükleme yaşamaktadır. Ayrıca ağ yılgınlığı ve devam etmeme niyeti ortalamaları anlamlı şekilde daha yüksektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Bilgi Aşırıyüklemesi, Sosyal Aşırıyükleme, İletişim Aşırıyüklemesi, Sosyal Ağlar, Covid-19.

Kaynakça

• Allen, D., & Wilson, T. D. (2003). Information overload: Context and causes. The New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 4(1), 31–44.
• Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage, and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological Medicine, 1–15.
• Amirkhan, J. (2011). Stress overload: A new approach to the assessment of stress. American Journal of Community Psychology, 49, 55–71.
• Baum, A., & Valins, S. (1977). Architecture and social behavior: Psychological study of social density. New York: Wiley.
• Bawden, D., & Robinson, L. (2009). The dark side of information: overload, anxiety and other paradoxes and pathologies. Journal of Information Science, 35(2), 180–191.
• Benselin, J. C., & Ragsdell, G. (2015). Information overload: The differences that age makes. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 48(3), 284-297.
• Blair, A. (2011). Information overloadings 2,300-year-old history. Harvard Business Review, 3.
• Bright, L. F., Kleiser, S. B., & Grau, S. L. (2015). Too much Facebook? An exploratory examination of social media fatigue. Computers in Human Behavior, 44, 148–155.
• Cao, X., Khan, A., Ali, A., & Khan, N. (2019). Consequences of cyberbullying and social overload while using SNSs: A study of users’ discontinuous usage behavior in SNSs. Information Systems Frontiers, 22, 1343-1356.
• Cao, X., & Sun, J. (2018). Exploring the effect of overload on the discontinuous intention of social media users: An S-O-R perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 10–18.
• Cherubini, M., Gutierrez, A., De Oliveira, R., & Oliver, N. (2010, April). Social tagging revamped: supporting the users’ need of self-promotion through persuasive techniques. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 985-994). ACM.
• Cho, J., Ramgolam, D. I., Schaefer, K. M., & Sandlin, A. N. (2011). The rate and delay in overload: An investigation of communication overload and channel synchronicity on identification and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 39(1), 38–54.
• Doll, W. J., Xia, W., & Torkzadeh, G. (1994). A confirmatory factor analysis of the end-user computing satisfaction instrument. MIS Quarterly, 18(4), 453–461.
• Farhoomand, A., & Drury, D. (2002). Managerial information overload. Commun. ACM, 45, 127–131. Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.
• Fu, S., Li, H., Liu, Y., Pirkkalainen, H., & Salo, M. (2020). Social media overload, exhaustion, and use discontinuance: Examining the effects of information overload, system feature overload, and social overload. Information Processing & Management, 57(6), 102307.
• Goel, A., & Gupta, L. (2020). Social media in the times of COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Rheumatology 26(6), 220-223.
• Gouws, R. H., & Tarp, S. (2016). Information overload and data overload in lexicography. International Journal of Lexicography, 30(4), 389–415.
• Hair, J. F., Anderson, R. E., Tatham, R. L., & Black, W. C., (1998). Multivariate data analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Hargittai, E., Neuman, W. R., & Curry, O. (2012). Taming the information tide: Perceptions of information overload in the american home. The Information Society, 28(3), 161–173.
• Holmes, R. (2020). Is COVID-19 social media’s levelling up moment? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholmes/2020/04/24/is-covid-19-social-medias-levelling-up-moment/?sh=453fb86a6c60
• Hoq, K. (2016). Information overload: Causes, consequences and remedies - A Study. Philosophy and Progress, 55, 49.
• Karr-Wisniewski, P., & Lu, Y. (2010). When more is too much: Operationalizing technology overload and exploring its impact on knowledge worker productivity. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 1061–1072.
• Koeske, G. F., & Koeske, R. D. (1993). A preliminary test of a stress-strain-outcome model for reconceptualizing the burnout phenomenon. Journal of Social Service Research, 17(3–4), 107–135.
• Koroleva, K., Krasnova, H., & Günther, O. (2010). “Stop spamming me!” - Exploring information overload on Facebook. 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems, August 12-15, 2010, Peru.
• Laato, S., Islam, A. K. M. N., Islam, M. N., & Whelan, E. (2020). What drives unverified information sharing and cyberchondria during the COVID-19 pandemic? European Journal of Information Systems, 29(3), 288–305.
• Larose, R., Connolly, R., Lee, H., Li, K., & Hales, K. (2014). Connection overload? A cross cultural study of the consequences of social media connection. Information Systems Management, 31, 59–73.
• Laumer, S., Maier, C., Weitzel, T., & Wirth, J. (2016). Drivers and consequences of frustration when using social networking services: A quantitative analysis of facebook users. 22th Americas Conference on Information Systems, August 11-14, 2016, San Diego.
• Lee, A. R., Son, S.-M., & Kim, K. K. (2016). Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 51–61.
• Lee, S., Lee, S. C., & Suh, Y. (2016). Technostress from mobile communication and its impact on quality of life and productivity. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 27, 1–16.
• Levy, D.M. (2009). Information Overload. K.E. In Himma and H.T. Tavani (Ed.), The handbook of information and computer ethics (p. 497-515). New York: Wiley.
• Maier, C, Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2012). When social networking turns to social overload: Explaining the stress, emotional exhaustion, and quitting behavior from social network sites’ users. ECIS 2012 - 20th European Conference on Information Systems, 10-13 June, 2013, Barcelona.
• Maier, Christian, Laumer, S., & Weinert, C. (2013). The negative side of ICT-enabled communication: the case of social interaction overload in online social networks. ECIS 2013 - 21th European Conference on Information Systems, 6-8 June, 2013 Utrecht.
• McCarthy, D., & Saegert, S. (1978). Residential density, social overload, and social withdrawal. Human Ecology, 6(3), 253–272.
• Meyer, J.A. (1998). Information overload in marketing management. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 16(3), 200-209.
• Misra, S., & Stokols, D. (2012). Psychological and health outcomes of perceived information overload. Environment and Behavior, 44, 737–759.
• Nabity-Grover, T., Cheung, C., & Thatcher, J. (2020). Inside out and outside in: How the COVID-19 pandemic affects self-disclosure on social media. International Journal of Information Management, 55, 102188.
• Nawaz, M. A., Shah, Z., Nawaz, A., Asmi, F., Hassan, Z., & Raza, J. (2018). Overload and exhaustion: Classifying SNS discontinuance intentions. Cogent Psychology, 5(1), 1515584.
• Nematzadeh, A., Ciampaglia, G. L., Ahn, Y.-Y., & Flammini, A. (2019). Information overload in group communication: from conversation to cacophony in the Twitch chat. Royal Society Open Science, 6(10), 191412.
• Ragu-Nathan, T. S., Tarafdar, M., Ragu-Nathan, B. S., & Tu, Q. (2008). The consequences of technostress for end users in organizations: Conceptual development and empirical validation. Information Systems Research, 19(4), 417–433.
• Rainie, L., Smith, A., & Duggan, M. (2013). Coming and going on Facebook. Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project.
• Rathore, F., & Farooq, F. (2020). Information overload and infodemic in the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 70, 162.
• Ravindran, T., Yeow Kuan, A. C., & Hoe Lian, D. G. (2014). Antecedents and effects of social network fatigue. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(11), 2306–2320.
• Roetzel, P. G. (2019). Information overload in the information age: a review of the literature from business administration, business psychology, and related disciplines with a bibliometric approach and framework development. Business Research, 12(2), 479–522.
• Saegert, S. (1973). Crowding: Cognitive overload and behavioral constraint. Environmental Design Research, 2.
• Shin, J., & Shin, M. (2016). To be connected or not to be connected? Mobile messenger overload, fatigue, and mobile shunning. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 19(10), 579-586.
• Shokouhyar, S., Siadat, S., & Razavi, M. (2018). How social influence and personality affect users’ social network fatigue and discontinuance behavior. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 70.
• Song, H., Jung, J., & Kim, Y. (2017). Perceived news overload and its cognitive and attitudinal consequences for news usage in South Korea. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(4), 1172–1190.
• Tarafdar, M., Maier, C., Laumer, S., & Weitzel, T. (2020). Explaining the link between technostress and technology addiction for social networking sites: A study of distraction as a coping behavior. Information Systems Journal, 30(1), 96–124.
• Waddington, P. (1997). Dying for information? A report on the effects of information overload in the UK and worldwide. British Library Research and Innovation Report, 49–52.
• Xu, Y., Yang, Y., Cheng, Z., & Lim, J. (2014). Retaining and attracting users in social networking services: An empirical investigation of cyber migration. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(3), 239–253.
• Zhang, S., Zhao, L., Lu, Y., & Yang, J. (2016). Do you get tired of socializing? An empirical explanation of discontinuous usage behaviour in social network services. Information & Management, 53(7), 904–914.