Present when we know we have read a piece of news but we don’t remember where, when we forget the details and are not even sure if we scrolled it on the phone screen? Maybe a friend told us about it, oh no, colleagues are talking about it. This is infobulimia, a new social disease of recent years, a direct result of the endless scrolling and bombardment of information that bombards us on social media, sites, notifications and emails.
The Treccani Institute of Italian Encyclopedia, which lists it among the neologisms of the Italian language, says how widely it has spread. The definition? “The circulation of excessive amounts of information that produces cognitive overload in those who seek and access it, with the effects of confusion and frustration” is now widespread in common use. This term, which can be viewed on the Treccani.it portal, describes an increasingly relevant phenomenon in today’s communication ecosystem, characterized by a continuous and diffuse flow of information that, instead of facilitating understanding, instead triggers an endless hunger for information that often results in difficulties in discrimination, disorientation and mental overload.
As if it is a drug that we can no longer live without but that makes us lose clarity. “Infobulimia” is reminiscent of the English expression overload, coined in 1964 by political scientist Bertram Myron Gross to denote “a situation in which you receive too much information at the same time and cannot think about it clearly,” as the online Cambridge English Dictionary explains. Evidence of use over the last twenty years shows the application of this term in different contexts: from those related to the psychopathology linked to connection addiction – used to describe compulsive information seeking – to the media field: in fact a continuous flow of information (more or less interesting) ensures that a lot of news flows without any space (and time) to process it, to assimilate it.
More recently, the term has also been used to refer to online search practices, which often result in “a waste of time, effort and frustration”, as observed by Riccardo Guelfi and Fabrizio Saviano (How not to be spied on on the Internet, goWare, 2024). The desire to make the “crime” that unites us into a new word reflects, ultimately, a deficiency: it tells us how important it is to select, interpret and critically evaluate information “in a context dominated by abundance and immediacy” as Treccani explains. A need that Pope Francis had reminded us of at the beginning of this year, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Communication, when, with the premise “I just want to say a word” he hinted at the importance of fighting information bulimia through essentiality, credibility and authenticity, principles that outline the responsibilities of those who communicate.
And everyone else too
Treccani’s new definition tells us that it might be a good idea to slow it down. In order not to lose the quality of things, words. So as not to end up in an increasingly full-bodied stream that doesn’t give anything time to take root.
