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Knock, Knock: Information Pollution Is Here

Posted by timothy on from the does-this-bother-you-does-this-bother-you dept.

CowboyRobot writes ""Information Pollution" is one of the newer buzz-phrases, appearing in various media to describe unwanted phone calls, faxes, emails, etc. Jakob Nielsen, known for his critiques of user interfaces has an article about the problems of unwanted instant messaging interruptions. Nielsen is respectable not only because of the clarity of his arguments but because he also cites empirical evidence, rather than just complaining. In the article he describes the current problem, then proposes a 'control panel' as a centralized interface to manage all the communications one would make via the computer."

2 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. With all the spam ... by gulfan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With all the spam on the Internet these days I find it harder and harder to find information on what I want. I was searching for information on teens in general for a project that my company was working on and majority of the results were adult related. When searching for products such as Cell Phones I'll be shown thousands of results for Antenna Boosters, Free unlocking Kits and more. Is anyone else having the same problems?

  2. This Was A Big Problem For Me by gurustu · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So I solved it by setting up two separate computers. One's my "work box" with my editors, shells, DB clients, etc. The other is my "communications box" with my email client, IM client, calendar, IRC clients, etc. Once I turned off all the alarms/alerts on the latter (except for the calendar), and once I made it so that I couldn't see the latter except by switching over to that box, my efficiency (and job satisfaction) skyrocketed.

    Initially, it made me less available and less responsive, and that bothered me. However, my work habits started to change in response to it. Because I now control my exposure to communications, I find that I can flip to the other box, scan for messages, and flip back to my work box without exiting the flow state.

    This has had some other really positive side effects. For example, people are aware that I'm in my office, even if I'm not responding to IM. That means that if something's really important, they'll often just drop by, replacing the thirty back-and-forth email with a simple 5 minute conversation. Sure, I lose my flow state, but high priority problems bubble up to the top of the list and get resolved in the most effective way (ie; face to face) possible.