Ekonomia percepcji : mechanizmy selekcjonowania informacji w internecie

The following dissertation presents a new model of perception associated with ever-growing amounts of information available on the Web. The specific topics discussed include automatic mechanisms for selecting data to help in countering the negative effects of information overload as well as the transformation of social tools for knowledge production and dissemination. The work consists of five parts, the first of which defines the concept of perception and explains the difference between perception and attention, categories so often used interchangeably in cultural studies. The problem of information overload is not considered through the prism of individual acts of perception, but as a phenomenon of social mechanisms of knowledge management. The second part presents the main theories and historical context of information overload. The analysis shows that the sense of overload is not only a characteristic of the information society, but a regular phenomenon in the history of culture that emerges from a changing media and communication environment. An important point of reference for the current perception changes is the birth of the mass society and the then attempts to create a democratic system of knowledge. The third chapter discusses two distinct and important phenomena impacting on the economics of perception in networked information environment, namely algorithmisation together with accompanying datification (tendency to create increasingly more numerical data) and collective intelligence, being a specific type of collaboration between different actors on the Web, which develops on a mass scale and promotes the formation of new mechanisms of knowledge creation. This part contains a diagnosis of processes involved in culture formation and change, used as a starting point for the formulation of strategies to combat information overload presented in the subsequent chapter. These strategies are understood as technological solutions (algorithms, automatic filters, data processing systems), design concepts (data visualisation) and social mechanisms of content management (curatorial practices, social tagging, etc.), which are formed by adapting existing mechanisms to current challenges and social conditions. The last part of the dissertation presents the author’s proposal for a new model of perception (ambient perception), which draws on Walter Benjamin’s concept of tactical reception. Rather than being a complete departure from the perception achieved with focused attention, ambient perception seems to enhance the cognitive apparatus by enabling data processing in the background. The perception process takes place in different modes, which intertwine and complement each other in pursuit of other objectives requiring different cognitive tools and resources. This helps to alleviate the effects of information overload without burdening the perceptual apparatus of the individual