The Age of Clutter

The age of clutter
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The authors of the article; The Age of Clutter: Conducting Effective Research Using The Internet, depict three significant problems online researchers encounter in their endeavors using the Internet. The notable aspects are knowledge of the technology, data relevance and information overload and evaluation of websites for quality.
In the Internet, filter tools assist a researcher to acquire information of desired relevance with ease and efficiency. Nonetheless, there is a remarkable problem with the usage of filter tools since researchers have little knowledge about the technology. This problem has significant effects on the nature of information acquired (Fornaciari & Roca, 1999). It is apparent that different filters yield different results. For instance, some have extensive coverage of data while others adopt a narrower but more accurate perspective of the same. Besides, some filters adhere to a more dynamic strategy than others, in that they undergo periodic updates, while others don’t (Fornaciari & Roca, 1999).
The Internet harbors large volumes of information thus inducing the problem of data relevance and information overload to researchers. The most critical role of a web-based search is to yield the best return per the topic under investigation. However, due to the vast information on the Internet, the information search may produce irrelevant results. Also, in cases where the researcher is not familiar with the topic, he/she is researching on, the anticipation of information may be inaccurate (Fornaciari & Roca, 1999).

The researcher is likely to leave out critical information since the search process may fail to uncover vital resources or data. Additionally, the researcher may fail to make a wise decision on which site to visit despite having well-formed or clear searches and filters. In a nutshell, the availability of surplus information on the Internet may compromise data relevance, thus posing a challenge to the researcher.
Lastly, evaluation of the utility and relevance of a site is a daunting task to the researcher. Some websites may be low-quality sources running adverts while others may be resourceful. The researcher may fail to differentiate between the two. Also, some sites may just give opinions on a given field of study rather than providing useful information. Therefore, the process of evaluating websites for quality is another setback of using the Internet to acquire helpful research information. In conclusion, the evaluation process may compromise a researcher’s decision-making process from which site to source information (Fornaciari & Roca, 1999).
References
Fornaciari, C., & Loffredo Roca, M. (1999). Age of Clutter: Conducting Effective Research Using the Internet. Journal Of Management Education, 23(6), 732-742. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/105256299902300610