Look at the research from the Information Overload Research Group (IORG), a consortium-supported group that works on this seriously.

http://iorgforum.org/

There is a lot of debate about how to define and measure it. But if you take the "Information Overload" frame at face value, and attempt to measure it, you get something like this:

According to our latest research Information Overload costs the U.S.

economy a minimum of $900 billion per year in lowered employee

productivity and reduced innovation. Despite its heft, this is a fairly

conservative number and reflects the loss of 25% of the knowledge worker’s day to the problem. The total could be as high as $1 trillion.

http://www.basexblog.com/2008/12...

This head-on approach has big conceptual problems though. I for one, don't believe IO is a problem at all (I won't go into my reasons, but my basic metaphor is "just because there's a big buffet you don't have to eat it all, just eat enough for your nutritional needs"). A more influential person than me who also doesn't buy the frame is Clay Shirky, who prefers the "filter failure" frame.


http://web2expo.blip.tv/file/127...