Stress and Technology

Mismanaging stress can lead to some adverse consequences. It can strain relationships with other people, it can manifest itself an illness and it may even compromise a person’s mental stability. Generally, people nowadays experience more stress compared to past generations. It is common for a person to multi-task in the hopes of squeezing out even just an extra hour in a day. Technology has a big part in this. Technology has ushered in an era where much more can be done in less time. Things can be done faster with more resources at our fingertips. Technology lets us communicate faster – instead of waiting for someone you can easily, buzz, text, email or call that person. Given this, some may believe that life is necessarily easier with today’s telecommunication technology. However, with all the gadgets at our disposal, people today may be actually suffering more from having too much information than during any other period in the past.

I’m not suggesting that technology is unwelcome and that we should remain technologically backward. The contribution of technology to the development of mankind is considerable. For instance, technology helps us communicate with other people, it allowed us to discover new things on our planet and it also helped us to discover medicines that would potentially save lives. My point is; we must remain aware of the effects of technology and remain vigilant to prevent it from negatively affecting our daily lives. A day will continue to have only 24 hours regardless of what technology can do –technology cannot buy us more time, at least not yet. Hmmm… but just maybe in the future someone may invent a gadget that could actually create more time.

I read an interesting article relating the advances in technology with the level of stress that people experience. It discusses how technology has negatively affected the quality of people’s lives by adding MORE stress. Fortunately, it suggests possible solutions to minimize these adverse effects of technology. The article makes a salient point that I believe everyone must remember. “Technology gives us a set of tools; new and powerful tools. They are however still tools –our tools, and we should control them.” We should prevent technology from controlling our lives. We should never be held hostage and see to it that technology serves only its primary purpose which is to improve our lives. If your computer breaks fix it or have it replaced, but even without a computer work can still be done, drafts can still be prepared, people can still be contacted and life will go on. Having no computer for a day or two does not mean that you have to panic because you feel that you will not be able to achieve any work. Technology does not control our lives and if we think that we need a breather from it we must learn to take a break from it. If you think you need time to recharge, then by all means take the time to just be with yourself.

Here is the link: http://www.practicepro.ca/practice/pdf/technologystress.pdf