Technostress is just another modern day addiction. The symptoms associated with this techno-centered syndrome range from irritability to a high degree of factual thinking, poor focus, limited access to emotions, and an insistence on efficiency while displaying lack of empathy for others.
In 1984, Craig Brod coined the phenomenon in his book Technostress, which identified the techno phenomenon as promoting breaks in concentration, feelings of being overwhelmed, and a high degree of anxiety. The state of being constantly stimulated or perpetually “plugged in” affects our brain and can eventually lead to strong mental or emotional responses including technological stress.
Technology has radically altered the way we build our personal and professional lives and how we interact with others. It has also altered our expectations and time perception. In a society where time is money, we often choose to confront the symptoms of mental and physical sickness, instead of looking to find a root cause. This quick fix mindset determines how we treat disorders that are created by technostress. We reach for sleep medications, boost our alertness and mood with caffeine, take antacid to get rid of indigestion and Viagra to improve sex. We don’t regard technostress itself as a potential problem.
Sadly, technology increases time spent in sedentary work habits. Sitting before a computer screen or accessing other technological equipment for long periods of time increases mental labor, which in turn consumes a tremendous amount of energy, leading to a deep, emotionally based fatigue that is quite different from physical fatigue. At the end of the day the inexorable advances associated with this “time saving” technology meant to help us stay more connected serve instead to keep us from ever fully disengaging.
Technostress is just like any other addiction; you become an excessive-compulsive addict interacting with technology. The stress hormones adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol fuel arousal and create the need, the rush and the high of being connected. When we decide to put our mind and body on the back burner, we are eventually going to receive an invoice in the form of necessary healing. This technological addiction has produced a population that is fragmented, lacking purpose, depressed, and filling doctor’s offices with an array of aliments, without intimate connections, and isolated from community support.
One of the most pressing problems associated with technostress was that people don’t get to unwind or recover. There is a continual, unrelieved build up of stress on a chemical level which in turn eventually contributes to a behavioral and/or physical problem.
How is technology effecting you? Have you ever experienced technostress?
In the next article Mike Conner will help you explore technostress symptoms and find effective ways to deal with it.
Images courtesy of Naaree.com and mark sebastian {Flickr}.
Mike
Mike Conner helps individuals reinvent the conversation between their brain, body and food. A Wellness, Food and Kitchen Coach who spends endless hours helping her clients create meaningful life plans as she infuses their lives with fresh ways of thinking about lifestyle change. As Conner says: “there is no such thing as bad or good genes, good or bad karma. There are solely life’s trails and corrections.” She encourages people to figure out ways to explore the edges of the world around them, from changing their physical environment to the cultivation of new interests and habits. Visit coachconner.com for extended versions of health and wellness articles.