Pain and Frustration: What’s Going Wrong with Technology?

If you’re reading this you’re already aware, consciously or not, that something is not right in the way we’re dealing with technology.

Maybe you’re not convinced that this is such a serious problem.

Or maybe you’re not sure that you understand what Digital Stress really is and what it means.

If so, please allow us to ask you . . .

Four simple questions:

1. Can you get through the week without using the Internet (excluding work duties)?
2. Do you ever feel bad or guilty about your Internet use?
3. Have you neglected your loved ones because of your Internet use?
4. Have you ever been in trouble at work because of your Internet use?

Answer quickly, go with your gut, and be sincere.

Later you can:

• Replace “Internet” with your digital drug of choice: smartphone, tablet, videogames, pornography, online gaming, social networks, etc.
• Ask the same questions in connection to any of your friends, colleagues or relatives.

For example: Have you ever seen your friends neglecting their loved ones because they’re always staring at their phones? Can they get through a week without their smartphones or using social media?

It’s easy and it takes just a few seconds.

Try to answer now.

You can do it again anytime, anywhere.

Look around you while you do it; open your eyes and notice how technology influences our lives.

Look at your loved ones, your spouse, your friends, your family, your children.

Oh, and just so you know…

The four questions above are pulled straight from an official National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence test.

This test is used to determine whether a person is an addict.

You just need to swap the word “drug” with the word “Internet” and you have the original questions.

Now, let that sink in for a second.

“I’m still not 100 percent sure, Dario and Andrea.”

No big deal.

Actually we always appreciate a healthy amount of skepticism.

“There’s a difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.”

. . . as James Randi said :).

Here are some more questions you might want to reflect upon:

• Do you suspect that some of your recurring discomforts, such as headaches, backache, eye strain, muscle tension, sleep problems, or fatigue, are caused by an excessive exposure to technology?

• Do you think that the amount of emails, messages, news, ads, and notifications is starting to feel unbearable?

• Do you remember a time when your life was simpler and more relaxing, despite now having so many “helpful apps” at your disposal?

• Don’t you think it is absurd that friends or family can be in the same room but not talking to one another because they’re interacting with their smartphones?

• Do you often wake up feeling like you could sleep for an extra couple of hours?

• Do you feel like you’re spending too much time playing videogames?

• Do you regularly visit adult websites, and, if so, do you feel that this has a negative effect on your love life?

• Do you ever panic when you forget your phone, or you’re without reception or the battery is dead?

• Does a notification alert give you an overpowering urge to check your phone?

• Do you find yourself craving to pull out your smartphone even amid a conversation, or while you’re spending time with friends or family?

“OK, so what’s the problem? We’re simply using technology a lot . . . everybody does!”

If you said yes to any of the above questions, then you’re among the millions of people affected by Digital Stress.

And you should know three things:

1. Digital Stress causes massive pain and difficulties.
2. Digital Stress is a vicious cycle—the more you experience it, the worse it gets.
3. Becoming aware of it—and taking action—stops the vicious cycle, leading you toward a happy and healthy life.

“Wait, what kind of issues and pains does Digital Stress cause?”

Countless research papers, books, and articles deepen our understanding of the various consequences that tech misuse brings about.

We could make a long list of such documents, but it would be plain boring. It would also foster information overload, one of the main causes of Digital Stress.

But to give you an idea, we could, for example:

• Write a book about each of these phenomena: Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), occipital neuralgia, phubbing, nomophobia, phantom vibrations syndrome, computer rage, etc.

• Examine thoroughly the constant decline, in the digital age:
  • Of our brain (see, for one, Mind Change and its references).
  • Our Health, especially that of children and teenagers.
  • Our personal relationships (you can start here, here, here, or here).
• Or we could cite merely a few examples of the shocking facts and news we encounter daily, like:
  • 60 percent of British women check their smartphones during sex (source: Huffington Post).
  • A woman missing for ten years was found living in an Internet café playing videogames (source: Business Insider).
  • There are Chinese military boot camps where desperate parents send their Internet-addicted children (source: The Telegraph).

And so on.

But this is not the right place.

Here we want to offer you real-life tools to face Digital Stress, which will allow you to be healthy and happy in the digital age.

Now you’ve got an idea of the effects that technology might have on your life.

We’re ready to do something about it.