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That's according to research firm Basex, which chose "information overload" as its 2008 "Problem of the Year." Failure to solve the problem will lead to "reduced productivity and throttled innovation."

The Atlantic ran a lengthy piece on the false promise of multitasking in its November edition (subscribers only), using as one of its epigraphs a line by Publilius Syrus: "To do two things at once is to do neither."

In a 2007 Pew survey, 49 percent of Americans described themselves as having "few tech assets" and said that constant connectivity was an annoyance, not a liberation.

The general causes of information overload include: A rapidly increasing rate of new information being produced The ease of duplication and transmission of data across the Internet An increase in the available channels of incoming information (e.g. telephone, e-mail, instant messaging, rss) Large amounts of historical information to dig through Contradictions and inaccuracies in available information A low signal-to-noise ratio A lack of a method for comparing and processing different kinds of information