New Publication: Experiencing Information Abundance
Our team members Sabrina H. Kessler and Sophia C. Volk have co-authored a new study published in the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media.
The paper introduces the Information Overload and Information Appreciation Scale (IOIAS), developed to measure how people experience today’s abundance of information across news, entertainment, and personal communication.
Based on focus groups and two large-scale surveys in Switzerland (N = 2,049), the study finds that information appreciation — feeling inspired or curious when encountering abundant information — is about twice as common as information overload. Importantly, both can occur together, reflecting the ambivalent nature of life in information-rich environments.
Read the study here:
Schulz, A., Volk, S. C., Blassnig, S., Kessler, S. H., Marschlich, S., Nguyen, M. H., Stahel, L., & Strauß, N. (2025). Information Overload and Information Appreciation Across News, Entertainment, and Personal Communication: Scale Development and Application. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2025.018