Open Access
Subscription Access
Open Access
Subscription Access
Attention Literacy in the Age of Information Abundance
Subscribe/Renew Journal
Information fatigue syndrome is a very common disorder presently for individuals who have to crawl a huge number of sources to get their required information due to information explosion or ‘info-pollution’ which is to be understood as a state where a person gets baffled and becomes unable to form appropriate decisions with too much information. Research in psychology, cognitive science, and neurosciences confirm that the biological limitations of human beings restrict a person from paying attention to several objects simultaneously. The present study is an endeavour to examine this issue through suggestive measures to decipher the various aspects of human attention. Document analysis technique has been adopted to show that only information literacy is not enough for the library and information science professionals to sustain in the attention economy; instead, attention literacy and fruitful application of different aspects of attention are very much essential too. The existing discourses of library and information science lack the notion that a shift of focus from information literacy to attention literacy has become necessary of late. The present study fills this knowledge gap and makes some recommendations regarding the fruitful application of attention literacy in different activities of libraries and information centres to sustain the attention of the users.
Keywords
Attention, Attention Literacy, Attention Economy, Attention Management, Information, Information Fatigue Syndrome, Information Explosion, Information Overload.
User
About The Author
Information
- Atchley, P., Lane, S., and Mennie, K. (2021). A general framework for understanding the impact of information technology on human experience. (S. Lane, & P. Atchley (Eds.)). Human capacity in the attention economy. American Psychological Association, USA.
- Berger, P., & Luckmann, T. (1979). The social construction of reality. Penguin Books, Great Britain.
- Bilawar, P. B. (2018). Essentials of information literacy and E-Information Literacy for Information Seekers. Ess Ess Publications, New Delhi.
- Davenport, T. H., and Beck, J. C. (2001). The attention economy: Understanding the new currency of Business. Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
- Dervin, B. (1972). From the mind’s eye of the ‘user’: The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. (J. D. Glazer, & R. R. Powell). Qualitative research in information management. Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, Co, pp. 61–84.
- Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Reflexive modernization. A Dictionary of Sociology. Available at: https://www.encyclopedia.com/ social-sciences/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-andpress- releases/reflexive-modernization
- Forbes. (n.d.). Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-createevery- day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-shouldread/? sh=7bd8bbff60ba
- Kabachinski, J. (2004). Coping with information fatigue syndrome. Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology, 38, 209–212.
- Kelly, K. (2008). Better than free. The edge. Available at: Wikipedia article on Attention economy.
- Kuang, S. (2016). Two polarities of social attention in social contexts: From Attending-to-others to attending-to-self. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, Article 63.
- Lanham, R. A. (2006). The economics of attention. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
- Moore, R. (2012). Capital. (M. Grenfell (Ed)). Jaipur Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Rawat Publications. pp. 101–118. Perdew, L. (2017). Information Literacy in the Digital Age. Abdo Publishing, USA.
- Rheingold, H. (2009). Attention literacy, blog, Howard Rheingold, City Brights. Available at: http://blog.sfgate. com/rheingold/2009/04/20/attention-literacy/
- Roy, A. (2022). Everyday life information for people with special needs: A Refuge to technology. SRELS Journal of Information Management, 59(4), 247-253.
- Roy, A., & Rakshit, T. (2020). Libraries in an attention economy: A Bird’s eye view. Sustainable Library, 26, 89–93.
- Savolainen, R. (2008). Everyday Information Practices: A Social Phenomenological Perspective. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Toronto.
- Shiffrin, R. M. (1988). Attention. (R. C. Atkinson, G. Lindzey, & R. D. Luce Stevens (Eds.)). Handbook of experimental psychology, Vol 2. Learning and cognition, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, pp. 738–811.
- Simon, H. A. (1971). Designing organizations for an information-rich world. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, pp. 37–52.
- Siteefy. (n.d.). Available at: https://siteefy.com/how-manywebsites- are-there/
- Sonnenwald, D.H., & Wildermuth, B.M. (2001). A research method to investigate information seeking using the concept of information horizons: An example from study of lower socio-economic student’s information seeking behaviour. New Review of Information Behaviour Research, 2, 65–86.
- Strayer, D. L., Getty, D., Francesco, B., & Cooper, J. M. (2021). The Multitasking motorist and the attention economy. (S. Lane, & P. Atchley (Eds.)). Human capacity in the attention economy, American Psychological Association, USA, pp. 135–151.
- Styles, E. A. (2006). The psychology of attention. 2nd ed. Psychology Press, New York. Treisman, A. M. (1964). Selective attention in man. British Medical Bulletin, 20: 12–16.
- Wyzowl. (n.d.). Available at: https://www.wyzowl.com/youtubestats/
Abstract Views: 143
PDF Views: 7