Unmanageable information flows produce a pathological collective panic

Evidence

The acceleration of information exchange […] is producing an effect of a pathological type on the individual human mind and even more on the collective mind. Individuals are not in a position to consciously process the immense and always growing mass of information that enters their computers, their cell phones, their television screens, their electronic diaries and their heads. However, it seems indispensable to follow, recognise, evaluate, process all this information if you want to be efficient, competitive, victorious. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1496

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to earlier highlights on intrusive noise and information overload structurally undermining independent thought. — connects to: The dot.com crash was caused by nervous-system strain from information overload — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 452; Collective fears can reshape group behavior in ambiguous situations. — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics: the…, 647; Unpredictability, scale, and uncontrollability make rare attacks terrorize whole publics — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2111 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Disembedding mechanisms remove control from individuals and create collective risk #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 310
• Context-free information feeds produce stupefying dread rather than understanding #expands (0.85) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 542
• Terrorism incites outsized public fear through unpredictability, lethality, and uncontrollability #expands (0.82)
• Rare but catastrophic events generate fear wildly disproportionate to actual risk #corroborates (0.82)
• Unpredictability, scale, and uncontrollability make rare attacks terrorize whole publics #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2111
• Low-probability high-consequence risks inflate fear and enable extreme policies #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2115
• Collective fears can reshape group behavior in ambiguous situations. #expands (0.78) — Cohen, Stanley, Folk devils and moral panics, 647
• Collective institutional trauma, not objective risk, sustains the volatility skew #complicates (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 165
• Moral panic theory explains how state actors manufacture outsized threats #expands (0.72)