Title
Information overload in group communication: from conversation to cacophony in the Twitch chat
Abstract
As social media replace traditional communication channels, we are often exposed to too much information to process. The presence of too many participants, for example, can turn online public spaces into noisy, overcrowded fora where no meaningful conversation can be held. Here, we analyse a large dataset of public chat logs from Twitch, a popular video-streaming platform, in order to examine how information overload affects online group communication. We measure structural and textual features of conversations such as user output, interaction and information content per message across a wide range of information loads. Our analysis reveals the existence of a transition from a conversational state to a cacophony-a state with lower per capita participation, more repetition and less information per message. This study provides a quantitative basis for further studies of the social effects of information overload, and may guide the design of more resilient online conversation systems.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1098/rsos.191412
ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE
Keywords
DocType
Volume
information overload,computational social science,cognitive load,Twitch
Journal
6
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
10
2054-5703
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
14
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Azadeh Nematzadeh1123.31
Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia216911.73
Yong-Yeol Ahn32124138.24
Alessandro Flammini4170594.69