Machines are drowning the human race in e-mails, faxes, and pager messages, say researchers, bringing an epidemic of stress, caused by data overload. The consequences could be catastrophic. In addition, aleading UK expert has warned that workers in many companies are close to breakdown because of data overload. You can tell junk mail at glance, but not junk e-mail.
Many people feel they have to sit at their desks to sort it all out.
They have lunch at their terminals. They stop going out so much, and when they do they find they are being harassed by their pagers and mobile phones. They become more and more aggressive towards, and intolerant of, intrusions. According to one expert, an average office worker is now likely to receive dozens of e-mail messages a day, while British businesses have almost 800 million items of unsolicited mail every year. In the past, the crank could be spotted by the green ink with which he wrote his letters.