The irruption in our lives of technology in the form of computers, internet, smartphone tablets… has caused social, cultural and economic changes that have affected many individuals. No one can doubt the benefits that technology has brought, and its use can be very useful as it allows us to be constantly connected to almost every corner of the planet. New technologies provide us with new channels of relationship and communication and facilitate access to information in record time, as well as providing us with new opportunities for leisure.

But not everything is so beautiful: experts have been warning us for decades about the risks of misuse of technology . For two decades now, psychologists have been naming new disorders that have emerged in the “information age” (also called the digital age or computer age ), such as FOMO Syndrome, Nomaphobia and Technostress . We will talk about the latter in today’s article.

What is techno-stress?

The concept of technostress is directly related to the negative effects of the use of technology .

It was named by the American psychiatrist Craig Brod in 1984 in his book Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolutio n , who first defined this phenomenon as “an adaptive disease caused by a lack of ability to deal with new computer technologies in a healthy way” .

In 1997 the word technostress became popular thanks to a book by Larry Rosen and Michelle Well called Technostress: Coping with Technology @Work @Home @Play . The authors define technostress as “any negative impact (direct and/or indirect) of technology on the attitudes, thoughts, behaviors or physiology of an individual’s body” . For them, the most common and documented form of this phenomenon is information overload, known as infoxication .

But both definitions were not very specific until Marisa Salanova, professor of psychology at the University Jaume I of Castellón, defined the techno-master as follows: “Technostress is a negative psychological state that is related to the use of information and communication technologies or to the threat of their use in the future. This state is conditioned by the perception of a mismatch between the demands and the resources related to the use of ICT that causes a high level of psychophysiological activation, discomfort and the development of negative attitudes towards ICT” .

Technostress is a problem for companies

Despite the fact that techno-stress affects all areas of life, it is in the working environment that this phenomenon has received the most attention . Salanova’s vision of techno-stress is related to the “demands-resources” paradigm that has dominated the organizational panorama of recent decades. It is in the world of work, and specifically in the occupational risk prevention departments, that this phenomenon is beginning to be taken seriously.

Being connected to the computer all day at work, looking at your mobile phone every 5 minutes, arriving home and still connected to the tablet while watching TV… ring a bell? If you feel identified, you are not alone: we spend 24 hours a day hooked on new technologies .

This situation is what causes techno-stress, and according to a recent study by the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) techno-stress “will become a new occupational risk, since the new forms of work (such as teleworking) and the omnipresence caused by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) may give rise to feelings of incapacity, out-of-date work or an addiction” .

Antonio Cano, president of the Spanish Society for the Study of Anxiety and Stress (SEAS) insists that individuals must be educated, as the misuse of ICTs can generate problems such as nervousness and anxiety.

According to the data collected by the National Survey on Working Conditions conducted in 2011, 25% of workers feel overwhelmed by their work. Mainly, this discomfort is caused by a fast pace of work, with pressure on deadlines and the simultaneous management of tasks, all of them , factors related to new technologies. The workers most exposed to technological change, overload and the speed of information (workers in sectors such as communication, finance, administration or science and technology) are those who suffer the most from techno-stress.

Types of technostress

As with stress, techno-stress is a complex phenomenon with different symptoms. According to the Spanish National Institute of Health and Safety at Work there are different types of techno-stress. We explain them below.

Technoanxiety

technoanxiety is the most common type of technostress. The person who suffers from it usually experiences high levels of physiological activation that makes him/her feel uneasy. Tension and unpleasant sensations are a characteristic feature of the present and future use of new technologies.

Some individuals develop an irrational fear of new technologies, which is known as technophobia . The symptoms of technophobia are: avoiding technology (including avoiding talking about it), anxiety in the presence of technology, and hostile and aggressive thoughts towards technology.

Technofatigue

Techno-fatigue is similar to burnout syndrome, as it is characterized by negative feelings such as fatigue, mental exhaustion or cognitive exhaustion due to the continuous use of new technologies. It can also manifest itself in sceptical attitudes and beliefs of ineffectiveness in the use of ICTs.

Some authors talk about a specific type of technofatigue: the syndrome of information fatigue . This is the result of exposure, consumption and excessive handling of information.

Techno-addiction

The techno-addiction is characterised by an uncontrollable desire to be connected to ICT at all times. This behaviour causes discomfort and a deterioration in the individual’s life.