Exploring Information Overload on Facebook
Research Paper
Problem
Users are confronted with the increasing amount of information on Social Network Sites and they need to develop strategies to process the incoming information in order to effectively use the platform and obtain the benefits of its use.
Research Process
An in-depth qualitative analysis using grounded theory methodology was conducted on 8 participant observations followed by 4 in-depth interviews using atlas.ti
Research Outcomes
Being unable to anticipate and control the actions of others, as well as constrained by network functionality, users can hardly deal with information overload on the individual level. This calls for global measures on the part of the provider. By learning from past behavioral patterns and integrating user preferences, intelligent filters could provide SNS users with relevant information and thereby improve their experience on the platform. The full paper can be found here.
The paper was published in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Americas Conference on Information Systems, Lima, Peru, August 12-15, 2010.
