什么是“信息污染”？

在電腦前工作的時(shí)候會(huì)時(shí)不時(shí)刷新一下微博？在某個(gè)網(wǎng)站注冊(cè)登錄過(guò)一次之后，就會(huì)經(jīng)常收到他們的推廣郵件？在信息無(wú)處不在的時(shí)代，信息污染也已經(jīng)隨處可見(jiàn)了。

Information pollution (also referred to as "info pollution") is the contamination of information supply with irrelevant, redundant, unsolicited and low-value information. The spread of useless and undesirable information can have a detrimental effect on human activities. It is considered one of the adverse effects of the information revolution.

信息污染（information pollution或info pollution）指信息源被大量無(wú)關(guān)的、多余的、強(qiáng)行介入的低價(jià)值信息所浸染的現(xiàn)象。那些無(wú)用和不受歡迎的信息傳播會(huì)對(duì)人類行為產(chǎn)生不利影響。

The majority of the modern descriptions of information pollution apply to computer based communication methods, such as e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and RSS feeds. People use information in order to make decisions and adapt to circumstances. Yet, cognitive studies have demonstrated that there is only so much information human beings can process before the quality of their decisions begins to deteriorate. The excess of information is commonly known as information overload and it can lead to decision paralysis, where the person is unable to make a judgment as they cannot see what is relevant anymore. Although technology has clearly exacerbated the problem, it is not the only cause of information pollution. Anything that distracts our attention from the essential facts that we need to perform a task or make a decision could be considered an information pollutant. (Source: Wikipedia)

現(xiàn)在所說(shuō)的信息污染大部分都與基于計(jì)算機(jī)的通訊方式有關(guān)，比如電子郵件、即時(shí)通訊和RSS訂閱。人們使用信息的目的是為了做出決策和因地制宜。但與此同時(shí)，認(rèn)知領(lǐng)域的研究也發(fā)現(xiàn)，人類在做正確高效的決策時(shí)只能處理一定量的信息。信息超載會(huì)導(dǎo)致決策機(jī)制癱瘓，因?yàn)槿祟愒诮邮盏酱罅啃畔⒑笠呀?jīng)無(wú)法分辨哪些信息是與其決策相關(guān)的。雖然各類技術(shù)使得信息超載問(wèn)題更加嚴(yán)重，但技術(shù)并不是產(chǎn)生信息污染的唯一誘因。任何使我們從完成任務(wù)和作出決策所需的基礎(chǔ)事實(shí)上分神的因素都可被稱為信息污染源。

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（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津 Helen 編輯：丹妮）

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