This week in school, we had a lecture and conversation about “technology,” and if the advances in such has put more stress on our society. As you may know from my methodology, my answer is a resounding “yes!” However, some of my classmates did not agree.
In the Information Age of today, more and more information is hitting our plates everyday. The flow continues because of the better connectivity to the Internet and faster PC’s allow it to come avalanching in. Along with this, and usually without our say-so, more and more work is being put on our plates – without more resources or tools to help. i.e., you are suppose to keep using the same old fashion To Do list (or, when people give up on that, 3M Post-It notes sprawled all over your desk {sorry, Matt, just razzing you!}) and get your job done! When you have an average of 150 items facing you (you do! Take 10 minutes and list out everything that is on your mind!), that, my friends, is stress!
My classmates said, “Well, you just have to handle it. It is only stress if you let it be stress.”
My response was, and is, that you can meditate all you want. You can go exercise everyday. You can take all the stress management classes in the world. Nevertheless, the stress is still going to be there. An analogy: if you are a car manufacturer and there is a defect in the car you make, you can band-aide it all you want. You can do all the Public Relations you want. However, the defect is still there; you have to fix it to solve the problem. Therefore, technology has, and is, putting more stress on society.
Now, I am a firm believer in being proactive (thank you, Steven Covey
Maybe our debate was over semantics. Maybe technology introduces “stressors” and not “stress.” Technology has made some fantastic advances for our society; we just have to have the right tools in place to utilize it.
I think you are correct that new technology has added more stressors. Stress is a reaction to stressors. How much you react to the stessors is how much stress you have. Learning to sort out what you have control over and what you don’t and only stressing the things that you have control over helps. Also, knowing that you usually have some input on how many stressors you take on (to a point) can help. Learning to say no to some things will reduce stress. For me, when I reach the “over stress” point I completely shut down, so I have worked hard at saying “no” more and sorting my stessor list to avoid that point. Of course I cheat, I don’t compute anymore which has reduced the biggest stress I use to have in life. And all the running I am doing to prepare for an upcoming marathon has definitely helped remove the phycial effects of stress. And above all, if you have something that needs to get done, try turning off the TV!