Introduction

The fast spread of information in today’s digital era over many online channels has resulted in a complex interaction of psychological phenomena. It affects people's well-being as they navigate in the virtual overpowered internet and social media environment. In this research, we intend to review the entangled links between information overload, emotional tiredness, and social media fatigue. People grow in the unending stream of information on various social media platforms, they further struggle with the emotional well-being and cognitive demands of living a normal, healthy lifestyle which becomes impossible in the digitally linked life.

Information overload is a term used to describe the difference between the quantity of readily available information and the actual capacity of an individual to handle such information. Considering the digital era, this experience of excessive digital and information usage has attracted attention (Eppler & Mengis, 2004). Individual’s cognitive abilities face previously unknown and unrecognized problems due to the speed and ubiquity of information flow.

A key component of disablement first recognized by Maslach and Jackson (1981) is emotional exhaustion. It is a condition of emotional depletion and weariness brought on by extended exposure to stress. Within the broader context of the psychological effects of information overload, emotional exhaustion becomes an important component to investigate as people struggle with the demands of digesting a great deal of information (Demerouti et al., 2001).

A current scenario known as "social media fatigue" is exhaustion caused by repeated usage of social media platforms. Users experience prostration and disconnection because of the cumulative consequences of navigating a vast valley of information and maintaining digital social relationships (Kim & Lee, 2011).

This literature summary aims to offer a relationship between these three factors. It aims to build an understanding of how these three factors communicate, forming and affecting one another in the digital environment. By amalgamating previous studies, it aims to offer insight into the causes, effects, and likely alleviating methods connected to the intricate interactions between social media fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and information overload. By doing this, this review adds to the current debate on the psychological effects of the digital era. It provides information that can escort future studies and valuable initiatives to encourage a more positive digital experience.

Information Overload: Conceptual Framework

In today's digital environment, the hypothesis of information overload has become increasingly apropos, measuring people's mental abilities, and influencing their internet experiences. An individual encounters information overload when the volume of information they are confronted with transcends their ability to process and understand it. (Edmunds et al., 2000). Its roots can be noticed in the initial research of communication theory. The conceptual framework underlying the convoluted problem of information overload makes it cheaper to understand its roots, implications, and possible mitigation strategies.

"The Mathematical Theory of Communication" by Shannon and Weaver, first proposed the notion of a communication system and the challenges that arise when its capacity exceeds the volume of information it processes. In the digital era, the amount and keeping of information flow have increased exponentially due to digital platforms and rapid data distribution, intensifying the issues related to information overload (Bawden et al. 1999).

Information overload can be described in terms of some essential elements. People require assistance and help in organizing, analyzing and integrating a large volume of available information as it is principally a cognitive difficulty (Eppler & Mengis, 2004). Cognitive overload may restrict a person’s capacity to solve challenges, make wiser conclusions, and produce knowledge- typically of a lesser calibre.

Moreover, the concept of information overload has a major influence on emotional dimensions. People may get acquainted with emotional reactions, including tension, worry, and anger, as they grapple with cognitive obstacles (Eppler & Mengis, 2004). The emotional aspect of information overload underscores the connection between cognitive and emotional states and the broader impact it has on psychological health.

In the digital context, information overload occurs through a continual connection of knowledge and stimuli from social media platforms, updates, and other online sources. People are unendingly deluged with information due to the rapid advancement of technology, and need the creation of workable coping mechanisms to survive this digital deluge (Bawden et al., 2020).

Developing methods that reduce the impact of information overload involves understanding its conceptual underlying. By conceding the cognitive and emotional aspects of information overload and how they interact, professionals and academics may reduce its detrimental effects and promote a pleasurable and enduring digital experience.

Emotional Exhaustion: Understanding Burnout

Emotional exhaustion is an important component of fatigue as an entire occurrence, particularly regarding psychological and professional health. Fatigue has been identified as a state of ongoing working stress that needs to be effectively managed (Wright et al.,1998). Emotional exhaustion is a state of emotional depletion and fatigue brought on by extended submission to stimuli.

Emotional exhaustion is one of the three main elements of fatigue, along with dispassion and reduced personal failure, according to Maslach and Jackson's (1981) novel study. The loss of emotional resources is reflected in emotional exhaustion, which leaves people feeling emotionally drained, tired, and emotionally cut off from their work. People feel discounted and lazy for their work. Generally, it results from long-term revelation to work expectations that are too much for a person to hold, which leaves them feeling powerless and less able to support the emotional needs of others (Wright et al., 1998).

Emotional exhaustion is a forerunner to other aspects of fatigue. It is one of its distinct features. It can be the primary symptom, setting the groundwork for the eventual disassociation and decreased personal accomplishment (Gaines et al., 1983). This concatenation of events highlights the importance of emotional exhaustion as a crucial marker of a person's health in work environments.

Researchers and practitioners need to comprehend emotional exhaustion. It is an essential indicator of organizational health and worker well-being. Recognizing the causes and effects of emotional exhaustion can help with focused treatments to keep people from prostration and foster a positive work environment.

Social Media Fatigue: Emerging Challenges

Individuals now face a contemporary psychological issue. Social media integration has become integral to people’s daily lives: social media fatigue. In the age of technology, this experience—characterized by fatigue and weariness resulting from extended use of social media platforms—has become a significant field of research.

A complicated network of interrelated elements goes beyond a mere despise of digital interactions to explain social media fatigue. According to Kim and Lee (2011), social media fatigue is weariness brought on by social interactions, continual information exposure, and the need to endorse a carefully chosen online existence. The convolution of this prostration reflects how social media is developing due to breakthrough technology and altering use patterns.

The excessive amount of information user is exposed to on social media is one of the major issues causing social media fatigue. The velocity with which content is generated and propagated, together with algorithms that prioritize specific types of content, can lead to a feeling of information overload (Chua & Chang, 2016). The inclination to keep up with the never-ending embankment of updates from friends, influencers, and the larger online community worsens this overload.

One of the primary reasons which makes people face social media fatigue is the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). It makes people worried and disturbed about missing out on executing affairs and events that others have shared (Przybylski et al., 2013). According to Vogel and Rose (2016), continuous exposure to exaggerated situations in other people's lives might lead to social comparisons and feelings of incompleteness, insufficiency, and gloominess.

As it is present in almost all individuals’ lives, it has become an important experience to be reviewed. There are times when maintaining a controlled and clean online presence may also be emotionally taxing. A lack of authenticity and unreal information broadcasting might result from the urge to showcase and post an unrealistic image of one's life. People usually post information which is uninformative and fake. They are motivated by social validation measures like likes and comments on a piece of particular information which was shared and posted online (Dhir et al., 2018).

Interplay among Information Overload, Emotional Exhaustion, and Social Media Fatigue

Today in the digital era, people handle an intricate and complex relationship between emotional exhaustion, information overload and social media fatigue. The relationship thus formulated by the amalgamation of all these modules depicts a complex. The combined effect of these modules provides a vivid representation of the threats found in the modern-day internet interaction.

Information Overload and Emotional Exhaustion: Emotional fatigue can be caused by information overload. It is defined as having excessive knowledge that one can comprehend and understand (Eppler & Mengis, 2004). The unending pressure to handle vast volumes of information leads to emotional exhaustion and cognitive and mental strain (Tarafdar et al., 2015). The people who find it difficult to understand the nature and cognitive demands of the online environment find it difficult to absorb excessive information. As a result, they become emotionally exhausted and fatigued.

Emotional Exhaustion and Social Media Fatigue: One of the main aspects of burnout, exhaustion and tiredness is social media fatigue (Logan et al., 2018). The mental burden of maintaining a clean and impressive online presence creates pressure at times when people are unable to upload content and live up to the online expectations of others- their online followers (Kim & Lee, 2011). When people are unable to create content and display the same on their homepage on social media platforms, it makes them mentally stressed. They are unable to concentrate on their normal day-to-day affairs and maintain a normal and happy life.

Mitigation Strategies and Interventions

The complicated relationship between social media fatigue, emotional exhaustion and information overload poses issues that require immediate and careful creation of effective techniques and solutions to suppress the negative effects of the elements on the lives of people. These elements must be carefully studied and understood to foster a more sustainable and healthier digital environment. It is moreover important to address the relevant issues as almost all the people who use different social media platforms are affected by their complex features.

Digital Well-being Education: It gives people the correct required knowledge and skills they require to take charge of their digital life. As digital usage has become an integral part of life, a clear understanding of it is a must. The primary subjects covered in workshops, seminars, and online resources that are a part of digital well-being education involve information literacy, time management, and emotional resilience in digital environments (Hargittai & Redmiles, 2018).

Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Techniques: To nullify the adverse effect of information overload and fatigue, stress-reduction techniques and mindfulness might act as a saviour. It may reduce the psychological and emotional impact that excessive knowledge has on them (Chittaro & Vianello, 2018). Emotional balance and self-awareness are improved by deep breathing exercises and other mindfulness exercises.

Technostress Management Programs: Corporations and organizations may put up technostress management programs for the well-being of their workforce and to lower the impact of information overload (Tarafdar et al., 2015). To enhance the digital resilience amongst the social media users various peer support programs, training sessions, strategies and programs could be developed for a better understanding of the platform usage.

Designing User-Friendly Interfaces: Another way to mitigate the negative impact of social media usage and the evolution of emotional exhaustion could be by developing user-friendly interfaces (Hembrooke & Gay,2003). It would further alleviate the information overload. Different types of content curation algorithms could be designed and brought into practice for a better user-friendly approach to its usage.

Social Media Literacy Programs: To use social media platforms responsibly, social media literacy education programs can be introduced (Livingstone, 2004). These courses can further strongly emphasize developing a positive online persona, sharing known, real, and clear information responsibly, and critical thinking.

Workplace Well-being Initiatives: To alleviate emotional exhaustion, organizations might put workplace well-being programs into action. This might include offering tools for emotional health assistance, encouraging work-life balance, and cultivating a supportive work environment (Maslach et al., 2001).

Conclusion

A comprehensive, progressive, and actionable approach is required to face the complex challenges which information overload, emotional exhaustion and social media fatigue have on its users. In the era of digitalization, one cannot go far without using the internet and being a progressive part of the various social media platforms. To be a part of the present community of the online world, individuals must give extreme importance to proper and efficient time management techniques. Another element to be kept in mind while using the platform is digital literacy. People should undergo digital usage training and be a part of training sessions and workshops to understand the artificial world in an organized way. Organizations should provide study materials to their workers for employee well-being and should take the necessary measures to help them stay away from fatigue. It will help people move more resiliently through the entire data universe. User-friendly interfaces, technostress management programs, meditation and deep breathing acknowledge the wider societal impact of these digital technologies. The user-friendly interfaces and the technostress management programs would promote people to connect with technology and others without being tired, exhausted, and fatigued. It would give rise to a thoughtful digital interaction.

Everyone reacts differently to the digital threats they face in their daily social media interaction. Resilience strategies are personalized. It emphasizes creating proper boundary settings and managing the shared data in a better way. Occasionally people are advised to disengage from their regular social media interaction as a part of the digital detox technique. Together, these mitigation strategies address the complex interconnectedness, dependency and relationship between information overload, emotional exhaustion, and social media fatigue. We as individuals and social media users need to uplift ourselves to find a balance between connectivity and failure and create deeper relationships with the ever-evolving digital environment. It could be done by creating a comprehensive and constructive approach.

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Received: 12-Dec-2023, Manuscript No. AMSJ-23-14262; Editor assigned: 13-Dec-2023, PreQC No. AMSJ-23-14262(PQ); Reviewed: 16-Jan-2024, QC No. AMSJ-23-14262; Revised: 27-Jan-2024, Manuscript No. AMSJ-23-14262(R); Published: 18-May-2024