Electromagnetic (EM) pollution has raised significant concerns to human health with the rapid development of electronic devices and wireless information technologies, and created adverse effects on the normal operation of the sensitive electronic apparatus. Notably, the EM absorbers with either dielectric loss or magnetic loss can hardly perform efficient absorption, which thereby limits their applications in the coming 5G era. In such a context, the hotspot materials reported recently, such as graphene, MXenes, and metal-organic frameworks (MOF)-derived materials, etc., have been explored and applied as EM absorbing and shielding materials owing to their tunable heterostructures, as well as the facile incorporation of both dielectric and magnetic components. In this review, we deliver a comprehensive literature survey according to the types of EM absorbing and shielding materials, and interpret the connectivity and regularity among them on the basis of absorbing mechanisms and microstructures. Finally, the challenges and the future prospects of the EM dissipating materials are also discussed accordingly.