engleski

A qualitative study of information anxiety and information avoidance in everyday life

Information anxiety can occur when people are faced with an excessive amount of information that they cannot process effectively. In some situations, people avoid information about certain topics (e.g., politics, health) because they want to preserve their beliefs or avoid getting upset. This paper describes some of the main findings of recent studies that have shown that information overload causes not only information anxiety but also information avoidance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this paper presents research aimed at identifying the topics on which respondents experience anxiety and avoid information, as well as the reasons for information anxiety and information avoidance when seeking information for various purposes in daily life. The research was part of a master's thesis and was conducted using the qualitative method (structured interviews) with 17 respondents from the city of Požega (Croatia). The data was collected by e-mail, which is one of the methodological limitations in this research. According to the research results, respondents mainly have information anxiety when they search for health information, while most of them avoid financial information. As expected, one of the main reasons for respondents’ information anxiety when searching for information is information overload. When they experience an unpleasant feeling such as anxiety or worry, they usually stop their information search. In addition, respondents indicated that they mainly avoid information from web portals and social networks because they want to keep their peace of mind. Some respondents reported that they are not interested in information about the COVID-19 pandemic because they receive conflicting information from different sources. Libraries can offer workshops on information literacy skills such as selecting and evaluating credible online sources in order to neutralize information anxiety and information avoidance. Despite the qualitative methodology and a small sample of respondents, this study provides interesting insights and could be a starting point for a larger quantitative study.

information anxiety ; information avoidance ; COVID-19 ; qualitative study ; Croatia

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