o:2224 Information Chaos on the Internet - Perception in Relation to the Age of Users Informacioni haos na internetu – percepcija u odnosu na uzrast korisnika en Media Studies and Applied Ethics Vol. 4, No 1, 2023, str. 65-79. The rapid development of the Internet as a dominant medium in the field of information brought with it several novelties, caused by the nature of digital networked media. First and foremost is the hyperproduction of information as a result of each user’s free creation of content, but also the major problem of orientation in a narratively disconnected hyperspace and the proliferation of a large number of fake news. All of these changes resulted in the phenomenon of information chaos, or users’ disorientation in the Internet environment. In order to adapt to the new environment, users must learn a variety of new skills, which is much easier for younger generations than for older generations. The aim of the study is to determine to what extent users use the Internet for the purpose of information and in which ways they perceive information chaos. The goal is also to determine if there are any differences in the subjective feeling of disorientation on the Internet between younger and older users. The basic working hypothesis is that Internet users use the Internet as their primary source of information every day and are aware of information chaos on this medium, and that older users experience information chaos to a greater extent than younger users. The sample consists of 120 people divided into two groups: those aged 15 to 35 and those aged 45 and up. The data was collected using a specially designed questionnaire distributed via the Google Forms application, and the results were analyzed using descriptive and comparative statistics in the SPSS 24.0 program. The findings show that the respondents use the Internet for information on a daily basis, but certain differences in perception of the Internet chaos were noticed between age groups. Besides, younger respondents use the Internet as primary source of information, whereas older respondents use the Internet as a secondary source of information, that is as a supplement to other media. information chaos, Internet, disorientation, hypersphere, age differences, perception informacioni haos, internet, dezorijentacija, hipersfera, razlike u uzrastu, percepcij 1552099 10.46630/msae.1.2023.05 1552101 2683-5355 2024-02-06T10:49:36.370Z 44 yes 46 Ilija Milosavljević Filozofski fakultet 55676425 0000-0003-2341-7637 2023 46 Jovana Trajković Filozofski fakultet 29384039 2023 46 Neda Necić Filozofski fakultet 57119497 0000-0003-0662-4773 2023 application/pdf str. 65-79. 483895 https://phaidrani.ni.ac.rs/o:2224 no yes 18 70 11 1066001 1066052 92000001 2023 18A13 18A1310 65 79 Filozofski fakultet u Nišu 2023