Technostress
Any negative impact on attitudes, thoughts, behaviours, or body physiology that is caused either directly or indirectly by technology
(Weil and Rosen, 1997)
Technostress (Wikipedia) is the negative psychological link between people and the introduction of new technologies. Where ergonomics is the study of how humans react to and physically fit with machines in their environment, technostress is a result of altered habits of work and collaboration that are being brought about due to the use of modern information technologies at office and home situations.
People experience technostress when they cannot adapt to or cope with information technologies in a healthy manner. They feel compulsive about being connected and sharing constant updates, feel forced to respond to work-related information in real-time, and engage in almost habitual multi-tasking. They feel compelled to work faster because information flows faster, and have little time to spend on sustained thinking and creative analysis.
Craig Brod, a leader in the field of technostress research, states that technostress is "a modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with the new computer technologies in a healthy manner." Some of the earliest technostress scholarly studies in the field of Management Information Systems show that technostress is an undesirable phenomenon spawned by use of computing and communication devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. It is dependent on gender, age and computer literacy. Women experience lower technostress than men, older people experience less technostress at work than younger people and those with greater computer literacy experience lower technostress.
People experience technostress when they cannot adapt to or cope with information technologies in a healthy manner. They feel compulsive about being connected and sharing constant updates, feel forced to respond to work-related information in real-time, and engage in almost habitual multi-tasking. They feel compelled to work faster because information flows faster, and have little time to spend on sustained thinking and creative analysis.
Craig Brod, a leader in the field of technostress research, states that technostress is "a modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with the new computer technologies in a healthy manner." Some of the earliest technostress scholarly studies in the field of Management Information Systems show that technostress is an undesirable phenomenon spawned by use of computing and communication devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones. It is dependent on gender, age and computer literacy. Women experience lower technostress than men, older people experience less technostress at work than younger people and those with greater computer literacy experience lower technostress.
There are five conditions that are classified as "technostress creators":
Symptoms of technostress:
- "Techno-overload" describes situations where use of computers forces people to work more and work faster.
- "Techno-invasion" describes being “always exposed” where people can potentially be reached anywhere and any time and feel the need to be constantly connected. The regular work-day is extended, office work is done at all sorts of hours, and it is almost impossible to "cut away."
- "Techno-complexity" describes situations where the complex computer systems used at work force people to spend time and effort in learning and understanding how to use new applications and to update their skills. People find the variety of applications, functions, and jargon intimidating and consequently feel stressed.
- "Techno-insecurity" is associated with situations where people feel threatened about losing their jobs to other people who have a better understanding of new gadgets and computing devices.
- "Techno-uncertainty" relates to short life cycles of computer systems. Continuing changes and upgrades do not give people a chance to acquire experience with a particular system. People find this unsettling because their knowledge becomes rapidly outdated and they are required to re-learn things very rapidly and often.
Symptoms of technostress:
- Physical aspects are eye strain, backaches, headaches, stiff shoulders, neck pain, joint pain, dry mouth and throat, muscle tension, stomach discomfort, keyboard related injuries, chest pain, rapid heart rate, irritable bowel syndrome, increased blood pressure and difficulty in breathing.
- Emotional aspects like irritability, loss of temper, having a high state of anxiety when separated from a computer monitor, feelings of indifference, frustration, lack of appreciation, depression, guilt, feeling fearful, paranoia that leads to avoiding computers and negative attitudes.
- Behavioral aspects consists of feeling overly comfortable with computers, overspending on computers, insomnia, uncooperativeness and unwillingness, using computer terms in non-computer conversation, smoking, social withdrawal in favor of terminal time, cruising computer stores and drinking alcohol.
- Psychological aspects are composed of information overload in order to find, analyze, evaluate, and apply it in the right context with resources, underwork and routine jobs lead to frustrations when underemployed or when the work done involves only routine operations, job security, where people have a fear that computers may replace human roles, professional jealousy produced by technological competency, de-motivation due to prolonged periods of any technological activity, uncertainty about job role caused by an increased time working with technology.
Techno-eustress: Understanding the real effects of technological zeitgeist
Article by the Online Stress Summit’s expert Seán D. Waters, the founder of the Stress Less Clinic®, and trade mark claim for Technostressology™. We are living in amazing times where the world is only a “click” away. We hominis are communicating with each other using our digits, manus, vox activation activity, visual reality, cerebrum activated activity and AI (Artificial Intelligence) which helps us enormously in our daily activities like never before. >>> continue reading the article |
Research
A. Mahboob, T.Khan (2016). Technostress and Its Management Techniques: A Literature Review. Journal of Human Resource Management 4(3): 28-31.
Abstract: Our work life effectiveness and efficiency has increased tremendously with the help of technology. But at the same time, the use of technology has increased the stress at workplace. Technostress is causing a lot of physical as well as psychological problems among workers. This paper discusses various work stressors and suggests some techniques such as stress management programs, training programs, autonomy and social support, awareness and communication to deal with work stress related problems. Literature reviews have been done to understand and suggest on this issue. However, very little work has been done on this area till now and that is why, not enough literatures could be found to gather related information. This has been a major limitation of this paper. So, there is huge scope in future to work more elaborately on the causes of technostress and how in can be handled. In this regard, cultural, socio-demographic and occupational dimensions can also be considered.
http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20160403.12.pdf
R. Riedl (2012). On the Biology of Technostress: Literature Review and Research Agenda. ACM SIGMIS Database 44(1):18 (University of Linz)
Abstract: Despite the fact that human society has greatly benefited from the availability of information and communication technologies (ICT), both the use and ubiquity of ICT may also have a "dark side." Direct human interaction with ICT, as well as perceptions, emotions, and thoughts regarding the implementation of ICT in organizations and its pervasiveness in society in general, may lead to notable stress perceptions--a type of stress referred to as technostress. Analysis of the information systems (IS) literature reveals that technostress has hardly been addressed from a biological perspective. This is problematic, because biology not only provides objective measurements, but also, to a notable degree, determines human behavior toward ICT. Most important, biological measures (e.g., stress hormone levels, cardiovascular activity) are crucial predictors of human health, making them an indispensable complement to self-reports on stress perceptions. Against this background, the present article reviews the technostress research based on biological approaches that has been published in various disciplines such as human-computer interaction, medicine, biological psychology, and ergonomics. With the goal of developing a "big-picture" view of technostress and biology, this article integrates a body of highly fragmented work. The review reveals significant negative biological effects that develop from human interaction with ICT (e.g., increased activity of the cardiovascular system, or elevated levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol). However, the review also indicates that countermeasures, which may positively affect biological parameters (e.g., reduced levels of stress hormones), do exist. Drawing on the literature review, this article also specifies a research agenda for future technostress research. The agenda is organized along three themes (theory and methods, design science and engineering, health and coping strategies), and proposes fifteen research questions (topics) that can be addressed in future investigations.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rene_Riedl2/publication/273560491_On_the_biology_of_technostress/links/564f1db808aefe619b11a2a7/On-the-biology-of-technostress.pdf
Abstract: Despite the fact that human society has greatly benefited from the availability of information and communication technologies (ICT), both the use and ubiquity of ICT may also have a "dark side." Direct human interaction with ICT, as well as perceptions, emotions, and thoughts regarding the implementation of ICT in organizations and its pervasiveness in society in general, may lead to notable stress perceptions--a type of stress referred to as technostress. Analysis of the information systems (IS) literature reveals that technostress has hardly been addressed from a biological perspective. This is problematic, because biology not only provides objective measurements, but also, to a notable degree, determines human behavior toward ICT. Most important, biological measures (e.g., stress hormone levels, cardiovascular activity) are crucial predictors of human health, making them an indispensable complement to self-reports on stress perceptions. Against this background, the present article reviews the technostress research based on biological approaches that has been published in various disciplines such as human-computer interaction, medicine, biological psychology, and ergonomics. With the goal of developing a "big-picture" view of technostress and biology, this article integrates a body of highly fragmented work. The review reveals significant negative biological effects that develop from human interaction with ICT (e.g., increased activity of the cardiovascular system, or elevated levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol). However, the review also indicates that countermeasures, which may positively affect biological parameters (e.g., reduced levels of stress hormones), do exist. Drawing on the literature review, this article also specifies a research agenda for future technostress research. The agenda is organized along three themes (theory and methods, design science and engineering, health and coping strategies), and proposes fifteen research questions (topics) that can be addressed in future investigations.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rene_Riedl2/publication/273560491_On_the_biology_of_technostress/links/564f1db808aefe619b11a2a7/On-the-biology-of-technostress.pdf
Books
Technostress: The human cost of the computer revolution - Brod, C. - Addison Wesley Publishing Company 1984.
Technostress: Coping With Technology@Work@Home@Play - Weil, M. & Rosen, L. - John Wiley & Sons, New York 1997.
Technostress: Coping With Technology@Work@Home@Play - Weil, M. & Rosen, L. - John Wiley & Sons, New York 1997.