‘Information overload’ has increased stress amid pandemic, say Indians

About 44 per cent of Indians feel that "information overload" has intensified during the pandemic and escalated their daily stress, a new survey revealed on Thursday.

According to the survey by Canada-based information management solutions company OpenText, the data suggested that this “information overload” is significantly impacting both personal and professional lives.

“Users have proven willing to adopt new services and tools, but also face challenges in managing multiple accounts and sources of information,” Lou Blatt, SVP and CMO, OpenText, said in a statement.

“Companies need to recognise this trend and find ways to reduce complexity, simplify workflows and processes and create compelling customer and employee experiences,” Blatt added.

Faced with the prospect of working from home long term, more than one in five (21 per cent) respondents admit remaining motivated would be their biggest challenge, 39 per cent say accessing work email would be the main problem while 37 per cent said accessing corporate file systems and work content would be the biggest issue.

The pandemic also

According to the survey, the data suggested that this “information overload” is significantly impacting both personal and professional lives.

brought in a slew of new challenges including work from home, yet almost onethird (30 per cent) of respondents with an office job believe they still aren’t equipped with the right digital tools for remote work.

More than two in five (44 per cent) respondents believe that a more streamlined information database would be helpful to deal with the varied information sources such as emails, diaries, news feeds, company websites, calendars, etc, while making a work or home-life related decision.

Additionally, a similar number (43 per cent) felt the need to remember multiple passwords to access each app has added to their anxieties.

“The research data reveals that a significant proportion of the working population struggles with accessing work emails and corporate file systems, thereby hampering their productivity,” said Isaac Rajkumar, Managing Director, India and Vice President, Engineering.

With data stored in so many places, it is important to have a single information and content repository for managing all workflows smoothly and efficiently," Rajkumar added.

The survey was conducted through 3GEM and Google and involved 24,000 consumers who were anonymously surveyed globally, across India, Japan, Brazil, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia and Singapore. However, a total of 6,000 Indian adults were part of this research.