Over-Alerting: Episode 2

The first dimension of over-alerting: FREQUENCY

In our recently published article on Over-Alerting, Michele Wood and I found three primary dimensions to describe over-alerting: 

1. frequency

2. relevance

3. content

Beginning with FREQUENCY, we found it was described in multiple ways. 

1️⃣ To start, we need to consider how frequently a person's phone lights up, vibrates, or emits a noise to get your attention in general. We live in an "attention economy" and one study we cited said adults get upwards of 50 notifications each day on their phones. That's a LOT of messages to pay attention to. And an alert is competing for attention in that sea of messages.

2️⃣ Second, over-alerting frequency includes the number of times alerts are issued for a single threat/event. This becomes a problem when the second and third and fourth messages don't provide new information to help people understand how the threat has changed or what they need to do next. In the worst cases, this dimension of over-alerting frequency occurs due to technological malfunctions, such as when an alert "echoes" and is repeated in the alerting software-hardware system over time.

3️⃣ Third, over-alerting frequency includes the period of time over which those alerts are issued. If a person is "on alert" over a long period of time, with threat escalation happening only some of the time, then, similar to #2, there is a feeling of being over-alerted. Note that this dimension is very relevant to feelings of alert fatigued and we'll get to that in a later post. 

4️⃣ Fourth, over-alerting frequency includes receiving redundant messages from multiple sources. We know that the best way to initiate attention and action is to issue consistent messages from varying sources, but it does contribute to a feeling of over-alerting.

If you're like me and can think of examples from recent events that fit each of these dimensions, it becomes obvious that alert frequency is part of the over-alerting equation. In a future post I'll share about the second dimension - relevance. That one is JUICY, so you'll want to read Episode 3 to find out more.