Information Overload As One Of The Aspects Of Modern Society

Pre-literate cognitive model of data (information) perception and processing

Each stage of historical development corresponds to special principles of sign reality fixation. Initially, information was perceived audibly in accordance with the particularities of information flows of the pre-literate era.

The only form of communication at that period was oral communication. Oral communication was closely related to the traditional type of information transfer. Here, the information was accumulated in human experience and presented in a verbal version, which was not alienated into a sign form, and, of course, was oriented toward reproduction. Pre-literate perception did not imply the need for training in information processing methods, that is, reading and writing. The analytical prioritization and structuring of information was of a practical nature and purpose and was not considered to be the result of complex mental work. This can be proved by the fact that children in the pre-literate era were considered to be small adults from the moment they started walking since the dominant paradigm of thinking did not imply a stage of learning as a transition to the adult stage.

The Cognitive model of the perception of a written text

A cognitive paradigm shift took place with the introduction of written speech. The invention of writing systems, as a rule, corresponds to the emergence of civilization as a social device with a complex social hierarchy, extensive differentiated knowledge, and developed laws. It can be argued that the needs of civilization almost inevitably cause writing. Separation of the information from the subject producing it led to the formation of abstract thinking. The perception of information was not only audible. The fact is that a written text as a system of signs was first perceived visually, then it was deciphered, turning into meanings, and after it was spoken out by an internal speech and simultaneously listened to. Thus, with a paradigm shift, the focus of understanding information has changed from audio perception to decoding information which contains in a sign system. This method of processing information requires the acquisition of a whole range of skills. We can distinguish the following mechanisms of a written text:

the mechanism of internal pronunciation (a person does not only see the text, but he\she says it to himself\herself and at the same time he/she hears himself\herself from the side and as a result the organs of vision and hearing interact: the imposition of a graphic image on the auditory causes an associative perception of the meaning);

• probabilistic forecasting, which is manifested at the semantic and verbal levels;

• semantic forecasting is the ability to predict, anticipate the events described in the text by the name of the text, to guess about the further development of events according to its first sentences;

verbal forecasting is the ability to guess the word by the initial letters, guess the syntactic construction of the sentence by the first words, and further construction of the paragraph by the first sentence (or sentences). Thus, a new paradigm of thinking suggested learning as a step towards the development of the cognitive paradigm of individual thinking.

It is not surprising that the introduction of a written speech into the system of perception of information prompted in highlighting a special stage in the human development that is childhood as a period of learning how to perceive, understand and use information adequately.

Cognitive model of perception and processing of multimedia content

Modern culture is often called as “on-screen culture” which has replaced oral and written culture. A new stage in the development of civilization, becoming a “civilization of vision”, a “civilization of the screen”, is associated with the latest discoveries in the field of communication technologies, which directly affect the nature of reproduction of culture, as well as the methods of its transmission. The transition from text to the screen had a direct consequence of a change in thinking.

The written culture was associated with a word, which essence consists in its ability to turn phenomena into ideal images. Words do not mean specific phenomena, but their generalized images. While imagining an object, we mentally construct it and it is not assigned to us initially, but created in speculative reality. A similar ability to give rise to specific images under the influence of a certain set of signs, which is a word, as well as aiming for linear sequential reading of such sign systems, has formed a certain way of thinking that is abstract, connected and logical.

If there are abstract concepts, meanings and meanings invisible to the eye behind the visual perception of the text of the book, then the visual and sound images of the screen culture are self-sufficient and do not require additional decryption because their meaning lies in them. Information era, that is, the current state of information oversaturation of society, has changed the ways we perceive and process information. The availability of information, the lack of its reliability guarantee, the low percentage of the usefulness of available information, its entertainment function and the multimedia nature of the presentation with the advantage of visual embodiment have become the causes of failure of the previous methods of perception, filtering, processing and use of information.

The phenomenon that most psychologists, linguists and educators today perceive as informational fatigue or prolonged partial attention, in fact, represents the next shift in the cognitive paradigm of thinking (Politsinskaya et al, 2019).

The aforementioned characteristics of modern content, namely its multimedia nature, redundancy and inaccuracy, have led to changes in the paradigm of cognitive properties of thinking of the modern generation, which are responsible for posing the problem, searching and selecting information, structuring and adequate using of the information. Modern technologies and methods of presenting information return a person to the pre-text era. The linear sequence of signs ceases to be the basis of culture (Gorobets & Kovalev, 2015). However, the role of the visual image is growing, and it results from the general reorientation of human culture towards visualization.

The visible and intelligible parts in the image are merged together, but the first one clearly dominates in the new cognitive paradigm.

Generation “Z” and clip thinking

From the socio-cognitive point of view, the modern generation, which is called “generation Z” Strauss and Howe (1991), has its own characteristics, due to the fact that its representatives are surrounded by electronic devices from the very beginning and it directly affects their views of life. In this case, self-awareness, values, a fundamental change of the image of the world are taking place (Bubnova & Krasnykh, 2014). Scientists agree that this generation demonstrates a quick reaction to what is happening as well as a desire for direct and continuous interaction.

The Internet affects fundamentally the formation of higher mental processes in children. Before the introduction of modern technologies, their formation was defined through the direct interaction of children with children, children with adults. At present social interactions are happening through new technologies (Nikolaeva, 2015).

The main changes in the paradigm of thinking occurred in the perception and memorization of information. Generation Z does not remember the content, but it memorises the location of the content and the possibility to find it. The attention of representatives of this generation is characterized by high switchability on the one hand and the inability to keep attention on one subject for more than 10-15 minutes on the other hand. Thus, they often talk about the so-called clip thinking, which is understood as the ability to reflect the variety of properties of an object, without taking into account the relationship between these properties (Gorobets & Kovalev, 2015). This process of displaying the characteristics is described by the fragmentation and heterogeneity of the incoming information. Therefore, there is a complete lack of integrity of perception of the world around. In fact, the perception of information of a person with clip thinking can be compared with switching TV channels, since pictures and images are not fixed in memory for a long time, they quickly switch one after another and do not have a strong connection with each other and, as a result, are quickly forgotten (Kuleshova & Ovcharenko, 2018).

A person does not have the ability to think in a concentrated manner, which interferes with the performance of a certain mental work, that is, conscious viewing, understanding the topic of reasoning, analysis, generalization, formulating conclusions, and the sequence of reasoning. The focus on understanding information shifts from a decoding text to visual symbols (Kostenko, 2015).

Clip thinking as a protective response to information overload

One of the features of clip thinking is that a person can “leave” the flow of information without feeling incomplete, and then “merge” into the stream again. In a way, clip thinking should be considered as a protective reaction to the information overload of the brain (Semenovskikh, 2014). In addition, a paradigm shift in thinking involves the acquisition of new cognitive characteristics. Generation Z describes, first of all, the ability to accomplish multitasks, switch quickly between sources of information and use them correctly.

Whereas a lot of information exists in the public domain, one must be able to find the right information and filter out the inapplicable piece of it quickly. People with such thinking are more in demand in modern society, while a delayed reaction with any qualification cannot be a positive quality. Switching to the perception of visual symbols does not demonstrate the inability to perceive, understand and use the necessary information in an adequate way by the new generation. The visual symbol which is at the top of the perception of reality by generation Z represents the same sign that was deciphered in the text by the previous generation, and it has a form and content that one is able to decipher, recognize and use.