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ScienceDirect
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 (2014) 79 – 84
CESC 2013
The Internet and the informational bulimia
Ștefana-Oana Ciortea-Neamțiu*
aWest University of Timișoara, Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences,4, Vasile Pârvan bv, Timisoara, 300223, Romania
bInstitute for Social and Political Research, Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences, West University of Timisoara, 4, Vasile Pârvan bv, Timișoara, 300223, Romania
Abstract
Umberto Eco formulated the phrase that there is “no greater silence than the absolute noise”. The immensity of the online-information in any field is overwhelming today. In this paper I will formulate and look for answers for two key-questions: How much information do we need? How much information can we deal with?
The paper deals with the informational bulimia, pointing to the way we are fed with information every day, being often driven to a consumption we aren’t able to control. My attention will be focused on online information: online news, online information for researchers and professionals and the online publishing of books.
© 20144 PublishedTheAuthorsby.ElsevierPublishedLtdby.ThisElsevierisan openLtd. access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (Peerhttp://creativecommonsreviewundertheresponsibility.org/licenses/byof-thenc-nd/3West.0/University). of Timisoara.
Peer review under the responsibility of the West University of Timisoara.
Keywords: Internet; informational bulimia; online information; e-research
1. Introduction
The Internet is one of the most used storage for and source of information today, both revolutionary and overwhelming in its immensity. A couple of years ago, I presented a paper at the Timișoara Academic Days about the Informational Bulimia, a term which I believe needs to be coined for communication and social sciences, feeling that it is important to express on one hand the need and must of being informed and on the other hand the way we are fed with information every day, being often driven to a consumption we aren’t able to control anymore. In 2011
I addressed the informational bulimia especially on TV news, this time my attention will be focused on the Internet in three aspects: online news, online information for researchers and the online publishing of books.
- Corresponding author. Tel. 40-0256-592132; fax: 40-0256-592132.
E-mail address: stefana.ciortea@e-uvt.ro
1877-0428 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer review under the responsibility of the West University of Timisoara. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.289
80 Ștefana-Oana Ciortea-Neamțiu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 163 (2014) 79 – 84
Some questions will rise: Do we need all the information available on the Internet on a subject we are researching? The simple, straight answer is no. Can we deal with all the information available? The simple, straight answer is no, again. What we need is quality, valid information, therefore, a classification of what me might be gathering on the Internet. But what means quality? Who is to define quality? Is the definition of quality subject to time and fashion?
2. Informational Bulimia
I’m a bulimic. I’m a bulimic in search and in searching for information. In front of the TV I discovered to be a bulimic for information. Like a bulimic is looking for food in his fridge I am looking for new information after the advertising spots break, wondering what has happened during the five minutes, what has changed or, even worth, I don’t wait for these minutes to pass, I zap to find more, updated information on other channels. It happened once, it happened twice, mostly on special events, those breaking news, that, au contraire to their pendant in films, the blockbusters, don’t paralyse their competitors, on the contrary, we are maybe looking for the subject on different channels or different websites in order to gather new information and keep in touch with the update.
And there are a lot of breaking news: the disaster of Fukushima, the British royal wedding, the abdication of Pope Benedict, the political changes in Romania in summer 2012, and the list is never ending.
I believe I’m not the only bulimic and that this bulimia is supported mainly by television and the Internet. Printed press is constrained by the fixed number of signs and radio has become –after the rise of television – a medium “to go”, a medium which doesn’t gather us as it did to families back in its golden years, but a medium we are consuming while doing something else, it has become more or less a voice or a sound in the background.
In 2011 I used the phrase“informational bulimia” to describe the way people are being fed with breaking news at Romanian television.
The relationship between the Internet and the informational bulimia can be put in these terms: The Internet user is more active than the TV-viewer, but can be lured to look for more (deepening and diversifying information– a positive example) or lured even into something she/he doesn’t really want (possibly negative example, because of time consumption).
The bulimic of online information is looking for new information clicking her/his way through from link to link, searching different websites in order to gather newer and different information on an interesting subject and keep in touch with the update.
It all depends on the subject and the wa
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