Critical Ignoring A Strategy For Information Overload

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 5:16 PM

critical ignoring a strategy for information overload

Posted November 23, 2025 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch How many Trump administration executive orders, policy announcements, or social media blasts have you heard about this week? Can you even begin to name them all? U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have been said to engage in a strategy called “flooding the zone”—releasing a great deal of information with the goal of distracting the media and the public. (Almost certainly, they are not the only politicians to do this.

For example, Boris Johnson’s London mayoral campaigns were said to use the “dead cat strategy,” shocking the public with an announcement to distract them from news they preferred they not see.) The U.S. political application of this term, which was borrowed from the name of a tactic used in American football, can be traced to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, who said, “All we have to do... They'll bite on one, and we'll get all of our stuff done, bang, bang, bang.” Flooding the zone might work as a political strategy, but it takes a psychological toll on media consumers. For example, polls show that 65% of U.S. adults have felt the need to reduce their media consumption because of information overload and ensuing feelings of fatigue.

Moreover, experimental research has found that a habit of closely following political news is a chronic stressor, often leading to negative emotions (Ford et al., 2023). But information overload doesn’t just undermine our psychological well-being; it can also undermine democracy. In a recent article, “Critical ignoring when information abundance is detrimental to democracy,” psychology researchers Stephan Lewandowsky and Ralph Hertwig (2025) outlined why information overload harms democracy and provided a strategy on how we... First, the authors share findings that information abundance causes misinformation because our ability to differentiate truth from falsehood decreases when we are overwhelmed and in a hurry. In fact, the research shows that overwhelmed people are more likely to share “things that are partially or completely untrue.” Why? Essentially, we’re more likely to share the splashy findings which are, in turn, more likely to be misinformation.

As the researchers explain, this information abundance harms democracy via several mechanisms, ranging from “triggering misinformation cascades to generating coping strategies that result in reduced political accountability.” Director, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development Cognitive scientist, Max Planck Institute for Human Development Professor of Education and (by courtesy) History, Stanford University Chair of Cognitive Psychology, University of Bristol Ralph Hertwig receives funding from the Volkswagen Foundation and the European Commission (HORIZON 2022 grant GA 101094752).

He has collaborated with researchers in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. March 20, 2024 10:00 am - 11:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern Mastering the Digital Onslaught: Navigating Information Overload with Critical Ignoring Karen Burton (she/her) Science Librarian at University Libraries, Clemson University Digital information literacy has emerged as a critical skill in recent years and equipping individuals to sift through the digital muck to uncover reliable information in an information-saturated world is a constant challenge. The unrelenting stream of data, riddled with low-quality and misleading content, often overloads our cognitive resources. This session will discuss cognitive overload in the context of digital information literacy and explore how the concept of "critical ignoring" can be integrated into information literacy instruction.

Recent research emphasizes "critical ignoring" as a tool to reduce cognitive overload. First coined by Sam Wineburg in 2021, critical ignoring is defined as "choosing what to ignore and where to invest one's limited attentional capacities" (Kozyreva et al., 2023, p. 81). In their 2023 paper, "Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens," Wineburg and his co-authors provide insights into leveraging critical ignoring to make information evaluation feasible and protect individuals from information overload. This session will introduce the concept of critical ignoring and its implications for information literacy instruction and will explore how the integration of critical ignoring strategies can enhance information evaluation within the ACRL framework... By integrating critical ignoring as a core competency, we can equip learners with essential skills to navigate the digital realm while effectively combating information overload.

This session will offer practical insights and examples to help educators incorporate critical ignoring into their information literacy curriculum, resulting in more informed and resilient digital citizens. The internet is saturated with information, more than our brains could possibly handle on their own. Knowing what information to ignore is just as important as knowing what to pay attention to. In this lesson, students are introduced to the process of critical ignoring, a strategy they can use to manage the information they consume online. Sign in or join to unlock this free lesson Ever feel like your mind is like a browser with too many tabs open?

By the time the day winds down, it often feels like my brain is drowning in a sea of information—most of which I didn’t even ask for. It all begins innocently enough: a quick morning check of my phone, but then it’s a never-ending wave of headlines, notifications, and pings throughout the day. Some of them are genuinely important—family messages, work emails—but a vast majority are nothing more than distractions competing for my attention. It’s as if I sit down to focus on a task, and before I know it, I'm off on a wild scrolling adventure, reading about "A Farmer Who Discovered an Ancient City in His... In a world where information hits us harder than a freight train, it’s time to pivot from just “Critical Thinking” to embracing Critical Ignoring. Yes, instead of constantly trying to analyze everything that pops up on our radar, sometimes the best decision is to simply ignore what’s unnecessary.

Research suggests that, in today’s info-saturated world, learning to decide what to blissfully overlook is key to protecting our mental clarity and productivity. Critical thinking often gets all the credit for navigating the information jungle. But with the relentless onslaught of news, updates, and distractions, it’s not enough to constantly think through every bit of information we encounter. We need a new set of skills: the ability to focus on what matters and ignore the rest. As the philosopher William James once said, "The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook." Here are three strategies to help you become a master of Critical Ignoring:

Critical Ignoring A Strategy For Information Overload

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