Correlation Between Stress and Technology? 556
marshman113 asks: "I'm an undergraduate Cognitive Science major at a famous public university and currently enrolled in a Stress and Disease course. Being somewhat of a techie myself, I've decided to write my term paper on the relationship between technology and stress. I'm sure all of you hard-working Slashdot readers experience a fair amount of stress, on a daily basis. Has the evolution of technology in the workplace (computer, internet, email, etc...), which is suppose to make your job easier, made it any less stressful? If so, how? If not, why?"
Dear Slashdot: (Score:2, Insightful)
correlation.. maybe.. causation.. doubt it.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology does not cause stress (Score:5, Insightful)
Stress is a function of living beings, not machines.
KFG
Balance! (Score:5, Insightful)
I feel the stress (Score:3, Insightful)
Technology hasn't made it less stressful for me. Instead, with every new release of foo, expectations are heightened and project completion time tables are shortened based on the marketing brochures or eager sales reps who will say just about anything about the new foo to a desperate ear. I or anyone else in the group then feels the stress of not "living up to" the claims of the technology.
Technology impacting my stress (Score:5, Insightful)
As technology improves, the expectations placed are higher. Even if the facilities aren't there to achieve them, I'm being asked more seemingly insurmountable tasks.
Then again, being asked to "secure" a network....*grumbles*.
*unplugs internet connection*
+++
NO CARRIER
Push it harder! (Score:3, Insightful)
However, new technology lets me accomplish more in the same amount of time when compared with old technology. How much more? Enough. Now buy me a new G5 please.
Computers are many things (Score:5, Insightful)
You cannot rightfully make a broad, sweeping generalization about stress and computers because of the limitless range of their uses and functions. For most Slashdotters and geeks, computers are a hobby and a way to relieve stress. For secretaries, journalists and others who depend on computers solely for work, computers can be a source of horrible stress.
Many people play games on their computer to relieve stress. Others find new stress by trying to get their computer adjusted so that it can play games.
Computers have introduced a new kind of tool to the human race; one that can be used for a broader range of applications (in the old sense) than anything that came before them. Computers do not cause stress; people cause stress for themselves or allow outside forces to enhance or reduce their stress. To blame a machine as a source of stress is as stupid as blaming your dinner for a lack of taste.
-JemFor me it's a double-edged sword (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology relieves stress: During natural breaks through my workday it's easier for me now to go to TheOnion, Google News or Slashdot and just take a mental break. Instant messaging is yet another distraction that can be bothersome sometimes, but generally allows you to communicate with a bunch of people you know and feel like you're in the middle of a friendly conversation.
Mostly love it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nowadays I found myself dealing w/ customers thorough mostly email and (sometimes) IM, and it is so much easier to ignore it while on a coding rage and say deal with it once every hour. Customers still get a quick feedback and I can organize myself better.
Stress... (Score:5, Insightful)
As any normal individual, I have a certain level of stress in my life. Both at work with a boss that refuses to recognize my contributions, and at home dealing with the teenager of the house who refuses to accept my authority.. for the most part, I would say that the technology in my house (3 servers, 1 desktop and 1 laptop, all mine!@#!@$) relieves some of this stress and tension. I love to sit down in front of my computer and play xpatience or pacman after an argument, and at work, I love to spend my day reading
So even though in these scenarios computers help relieve the stress, there are situations where the technology creates a lot more stress than we need, such is the case when things don't work as advertised.. or when that hardware keeps failing but you cannot duplicate it.. or maybe when no matter what you try, you can't get that program running/compiled..
So I would think that depending on the type of work that you do on your system, it is either a stress reliever or a stress source..
---
Never let your schooling interfere with your education.
Why tech can be stressful (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:One view (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not my use that causes stress (Score:3, Insightful)
It's when other people use it, and screw up, and I have to bail them out, that I get stressed.
(he says, jokingly, 12 hours after having to reinstall the OS because a drive decided to cough up a lung... what stress?)
Stupid research (Score:3, Insightful)
You win some, you lose some (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, back in college, I supported a computer lab that didn't have a LAN or any hard drives. All of the original PCs had boot disks, and invariably, some student would take the boot disk, remove the little piece of tape off the write protect tab, and save their term paper to the boot disk. Then, they'd wonder why they couldn't find it a week later, on a different computer. Nowadays, those people are all in management at major software companies, mostly in the American southwest, but they can keep their files on shared drives, so they don't lose them, except when they click on attachments in Outlook.
The main technology that has made things less stressful has been quality search engines. It used to be really hard to figure out if a student had plagerized a paper - now, I know they all have. But seriously, now I can just type a few words in a search engine and figure out where they got their ideas.
A counter example: cell phones. Back when they were expensive, had short battery lives, and lousy coverage, I could actually go to a movie, a park, or a religious service without being called. Sure, its nice to be able to sit on hold with AAA if my car dies on the highway, but I could do with being a little less accessible the rest of the time.
Less stress? You must be kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
The demands on your time and attention only grow with technology, and so stress grows. It's a bit of an edge example, but I've been a stock investor for the last 20 years, and it was much more peaceful when I only could check the quotes once a day in the morning papers.
Dissenting opinion... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that technology and stress do not directly relate but that technology has created a faster pace. Technology creates 'higher and faster' expectations that not everyone can keep up with.
Falling behind creates stress.
Re:Considering I'm an IT Technician (Score:5, Insightful)
work-related stress....vacation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? because it's one of the few jobs where the work stacks up so much, that 5 minutes after you get back from vacation - regardless of how relaxing or fun it was - you're right back to the same (or greater) level of frustration and work stress that you had before you left....
After having been in the computer tech and internet world (support, as well as development), I can honestly say that I agree with this - especially for tech staff that are in smaller companies or offices where there isn't anyone to really cover your work while you're gone....
Technology either works or it doesn't (Score:5, Insightful)
Our lives are full of technology that doesn't work. Stress is when you're on deadline and the copier breaks down.
Computers, as currently implemented in the most widespread configurations, are a nightmare.
More Stressful... (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a two-edged sword. (Score:5, Insightful)
When I get home, I fire up my PC with its whizzy net connection and surf or play Enemy Territory... or perhaps I see what Tivo watched for me, or pop in a DVD.
When I have time off, I like to travel-- car, airplane, boat, whatever.
It seems to me that technology may be the main cause of my stress, but it's just as large a reducer of stress in my life. What fun would a vacation be if I couldn't go somewhere else and see it? (and shoot pictures of it with my digital camera?) How insane would I be by now if I couldn't come home and blow off steam by blowing up your command post?
But then, what's technology, anyhow? Sure I enjoy a good book now and again, too. But even that took mass-production of paper and electric lighting to do... Does that count?
It's not technology; it's our attitude toward it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Case in point:
I remember when I was growing up (12-16 years ago), my family lived in a very rural area. On Saturdays my mother would go into town for groceries and general shopping. She would be gone for about 3 hours. Occasionally, depending on how many places she went, how much she bought, if she went all the way into a town with a mall, she would be gone for 5 to 6 hours. She often forgot to tell my father she would be gone that long. On times like that, when she was gone for more than four hours, my father and I would step outside to look for her (this was irrational, as we could see about half a mile down the road, nevertheless we did it) and comment about how long she had been gone. We would look out the window more and more frequently as she was gone longer and longer. I know my father worried, but there wasn't much you could do short of getting in the truck and driving toward town. There were no cell phones (or if there were, we did not have one, and there were no cell towers around our house)
Flash-forward to today and you see a very different response to these "where are they?" situations. I've seen people dial someone's cell phone number over and over for hours trying to get hold of them. I've pretty much done the same thing myself, when I've been worried about my wife. When you do finally get hold of them, you are emotionally drained, relieved, and a little bit angry.
"Are you, OK!!!?" you demand of them.
"I had the cell phone turned off," they say, or, "It was in my purse and I didn't hear it ring." They even seem a bit puzzled by your concern. In your mind, they were stranded somewhere, or kidnapped, or worse.
My point (and I'm sorry for the long ramble) is that technology isn't exactly the culprit here, it's the way we let it change what we expect. The ability to reach out and touch someone no matter where they are makes us fear the worse when it ceases to be possible.
I think there are plenty of other similar relationships between technology and expectation, but I'll let someone else look at them, my lunch break is almost over.
--
Looking for automated code conversion services?
(COBOL, Fotran, PL/I, Assembler to COBOL, C, C++, C#, Java, etc.)
Check out Datatek, Inc. [datatek-net.com]
Technology or New Technology? (Score:2, Insightful)
I <3 my $0.02
Fill to caoacity (Score:3, Insightful)
It's all about capacity. Technology may have made our jobs easier (in comparison to the pre-technology period), but by freeing that capacity for other tasks, tasks are thusly assigned. Jobs now include more, and capacity is tested again to find the point at which stess creates the limit.
Yeah, that sounds good.
Re:Considering I'm an IT Technician (Score:5, Insightful)
Managing people is stressful because - at worst - you're being bitched at by both your bosses and your subordinates the whom you're supposed to care about as a "good manager".
Big Picture (Score:5, Insightful)
I never want for clean water.
I have clothes that will protect me from nearly any weather conditions I am likely to encounter.
I have a mode of transportation that can easily take me from place to place at 100 miles per hour, in total comfort.
I expect to live to fully twice the age I would expect absent technology.
In spite of my "unnatural" long life I expect my shelter to last even longer . . . unless the land becomes more valuable than the building on it.
If anyone comes into that shelter to take what I have I can poke
I like technology. Makes life much less nasty, brutish, and short.
-Peter
PS: I anxiously await a counter-argument about car accidents, chemical food preservatives, and chemical warfare.
An extra point if you refrain from mentioning President Bush. Half a point if you mention him, but manage to refer to him by a proper name and/or title.
-P
Re:Stress And Homework (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not technology (Score:3, Insightful)
It's management.
Re:just to shed some light on the parent... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:correlation.. maybe.. causation.. doubt it.. (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was a kid I was stressed about friends.
When I was in school I was stressed about tests.
When I was working in retail I was stressed about making my quota. (I still have nightmares about that.)
When I did graphics I was stressed about deadlines.
When I started doing them on the computer, I was STILL stressed ahout deadlines.
Now that I code for a living, I'm stressed about bugs.
After the dot.com bust, I stress about my job going overseas.
Since I'm getting older, I stress about retirement.
Stress is part of life. Technology can be a source of stress, but so can anything else. You have to learn how to deal with it.
deeeeep breaths... deeeep breaths... feeeeeel the stress flow out...
Re:correlation.. maybe.. causation.. doubt it.. (Score:4, Insightful)
There's a correlation between buying high-priced luxury automobiles and being able to afford quality health care. That doesn't mean you should go out and buy an expensive car if you're having trouble paying for health care.
apparently.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Life (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted I only mean physical contact. Having to deal with the needs of said living things is another story.
No shit. Do you own work, Kiddo. (Score:2, Insightful)
Now in addition to doing my own work, I have to write some guy's term paper.
I realize this is a joke but even before reading any of the comments here I was thinking the same thing. Technology making life more stressful? Please. Kiddo, in my day we actually had to work when we wrote term papers. Nowdays, thanks to technology (and the fact that you don't seem to understand the meaning of the phrase "independent work"), you can get your term paper largely written for you by posting a question on slashdot and cut-and-pasting the highly-modded comments into your paper. You claim that you're a techie. Why don't you use your own experiences to construct your arguement instead of cobbling together the collective wisdom of the slashdot community?
It ain't the technology, it's the omnipresence (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems I must unplug myself for at least a few hours a day to recharge.
Stress and technology? Hardly... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody dies when you foul something up. It doesn't affect a whole lot, maybe some company's profit margin, or delivery of some merchandise.
Try being an airplane mechaninc, where you are held criminally liable for every corpse related to something that breaks if you've signed off on it.
Maybe a fire fighter, where when you don't do your job correctly people die.
Policeman, when you fail to do your job, you die, innocent people die...
Compared to these, IT is a cakewalk.
And yeah, I know that IT has a strong influence in many of these fields, but it is abstracted from the first-hand death inherent in each.
No, it's the people (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe I'm oversimplifing a bit. I just find the tappity tap at my keyboard parts of the day to be the most serene for me. Boy do I hate when the phone rings...
Re:I love technology... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have three computers here, a couple projects, customer calls and am in charge of network security. Yet I don't have any stress. I have priorities, and I follow them. I too sometimes work overtime, but on my own terms...if I can't work overtime, I just say I can't. Obviously if there's so much work that they need you to stay late to do it, they need you, period.
A lot of stress is caused by poor coping skills. You can say "no," you know. In fact, in my experience the ability to say "no" is important. All my managers have had that skill, and that's how they got their jobs. People respect a helpful worker, but they hate a "yes" man. Just be sure to say "yes" enough to make yourself useful, and there will suddenly be less to bitch about.
Re:Mostly love it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Whether that be tech support over the phone, or (If you consider "Windows" a "technology", then there's a big boost in your stress right there.) tutoring students taking computer courses at community college, technology hasn't helped a great deal.
With every additional bit of sophistication, more training is required of the user. Unless, of course, you can train the user to figure things out on their own. That's what GUIs were supposed to be good for; users could apply the visual/spatial capabilities of their brains to learning how to do complex tasks.
Well, if anyone thought to teach a student to use a "GUI", much less doing so before trying to teach that student to use all of the advanced features of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage and Access.
(Our CO-101 course teaches you Access. Our CO-105 course teaches you how to use Windows. Our CO-109 course teaches you how to use a computer. God help me, I'm going insane!)
As a tutor, I've grown absolutely sick and tired of taking appointments involving CO-101 material. It's the Course Technologies book that tells you key by key, click by click, step by step what to do in order to complete your assignment. Students don't get a damn thing out of that kind of book, and I don't have the time or authority to spend the time elevating the student to a higher level, so they can see how all the material comes together.
The Front Page Says Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Because, in a serendipitous coincidence, on slashdot's front page, you'll find and article titled Timeshifting: Cram More into Life [slashdot.org].
If you read the description on the front page, you'll find a person who's seeking to use technology to its fullest to push out all the "dead space" in his life.
Eventually, there's nothing that technology can't provide. That is, the only thing technology can't provide is nothing.
I'd argue that, on occasion, people need a little nothing -- quiet, distractionless, reflecting time that you could call 'down' time -- and we're getting less and less of it.
In fact, we are so used to getting no down time that we don't even know what we're missing. All this distraction is like a diet of fast food: tastes good at the time, but nutritionally deficient, if not outright destructive.
But maybe I'm just old fashioned.
Ripple Effect of Stress (Score:5, Insightful)
Assuming you were driving and your cell phone came on and you were suddenly drawn into a conference call, your lack of attention to driving (and possible slowing down to avoid an accident as attention is divided) your apparent change of attitude in driving is observed by other drivers. The change lanes to get around you, or sit there and put up with it (possibly stewing over the situation) other drivers shift to accomodate, and so on. Perhaps time at work, to keep your job, places stress upon the family and how they interact with others. And so on.
It does seem that KISS has been thrown out the window, to make life easier for someone, somewhere, but a lot of people are being put upon to make that happen. Maybe someone is suffering because they've slaved away under stress to give you the tools and devices you depend upon. Is more actually getting done, or is technology simply a circular treadmill with several people on it at once?
Re:One view (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but it seems pretty reasonable to me.
Re:Computers are many things (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, you can rightfully make a broad, sweeping generalization about stress and computers...if you research the subject and find that there is correlation. That's the point of social sciences, to determine if there are correlations. If you continue your research and use properly controlled experiments with appropriate statistical analysis, you could even determine causality. It's true that correlation does not imply causation, but that doesn't mean that causation can't be proven.
You say that computers do not cause stress, but that is merely a hypothesis. There are many ways, both obvious and non-, that technology could contribute to stress. Computers emit all manner of EM fields, radiation, and strange sounds on a variety of frequencies, not all of which are intended. Any one of those could interact with the human body to physically cause stress. Or there could be a correlation between multitasking and stress, when multitasking is almost impossible to avoid with modern computer systems.
That being said, if the topic poster is considering this thread to be the sum total of research into the paper, well, it's not going to have much validity. I hope UCLA encourages a bit more work on this sort of thing.
Which reminds me, the whole "unnamed X" with the URL of the X included in a link is really, really dumb. I've seen it at least twice in as many days, and I hope it's a trend that dies out immediately. Just say you're going to UCLA and stop trying to make yourself look clever. There's no reason not to say which X you're talking about, and if you're doing a bare minimum of hiding the info, you look about as smart as Napster did when they attempted the whole "No, we don't encourage illegal file swapping at all (tee hee!)" thing in court.
=Brian
Expectations, not Technology (Score:3, Insightful)
Any stress I have in my job was not directly caused by technology. But, it is caused because every assumes that technology makes things faster.
As an example, the assumption: we can support a new process before the business has fully defined it because software isn't like buildings, it can be changed in no time.
Um, parent trying to be funny? (Score:1, Insightful)
He was trying to be funny!
Re:One view (Score:3, Insightful)
Users havn't changed. They have always and will always want their software to do everything possible to help them. Its just that in the old days the technology only did so much and the user was forced to do/understand/remember more. These days the software can simply do more so the user expects it to.
Re:Computers are many things (Score:2, Insightful)
There are people who use cars _as_ their jobs (e.g., taxi, bus, courier, etc).
There are people who rely on cars _for_ their jobs (e.g., anyone who has to drive to work).
There are people who use cars to relieve stress (e.g., most people I know have at some point.. a nice drive in the country, opening up on a deserted road, taking some nice curves at a good clip).
And yet, cars also cause an _unbelieveable_ amount of stress... traffic, pollution, accidents, etc., etc., etc...
This is one example.. you can pick almost any _broadly_ used piece of technology, and apply it there (e.g., phones, T.V., airplanes, etc).
I also have to believe that if you can't blame stress on technology, you don't have kids (and kids toys that have no off button =).
Does technology _cause_ stress? Directly, no. Only _you_ cause stress. Stress is an internal emotion that usually results from external forces such as pressure, etc., or other internal forces such as frustration, lack of sleep, etc.
Can technology be one of those forces? I'd say so.
The De-evolution of the user (Score:2, Insightful)
Lowering labor cost is a Holy Grail of most corporate management teams. Be it outsourcing to countries like India [cia.gov] and lovely China [jefflindsay.com], or doing everything possible to dumb-down any job so the only requirement is a pulse and an ability to follow simple (elementary school level) directions. ("Hi, thank you for calling tech. support...No, sir...I'm sorry...I have to follow the script...I don't know that...I can't...did you reboot?...but I...my head would explode if I tried to answer that question...")
Don't blame users for being stupid. Blame management. I'll say again: it's by design. </rant>
There is no stress, only fear (Score:3, Insightful)
With that in mind, has technology made us less fearful? I'm sure the average person is much more fearful. People fear change and the unknown. Personally, I find myself less fearful. However I can't say if that is due to technology or my own maturity (as you get older you suffer less stress).
Stress from the Job Market, not the Job. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I love technology... (Score:2, Insightful)
Life is a series of choices. I have choosen to leave my cell phone turned off unless I need to call someone or I am somewhere that I can be interrupted. I choose how quickly I answer a page. I try to only check my e-mail when I know I'll be able to deal with the requests and queries. While I won't tell my boss I'm too busy to talk to him, I have been known to say "no" to a request or ask if we can continue a discussion later. A favorite question "should be" 'which item can I drop off my plate in order to pick up the new one your pushing at me?'
When one learns and accepts new technologies, you must also learn how to deal with them. Following known and defined priorities is always a good decision.
Re:Clippy, the sinister nematode (Score:5, Insightful)
No. MS thinks that their program is so complex, the average office user could use a mini-AI to help them figure it out.
And they're right. Most folk who use office don't care about the program's features--they just want to get whatever they're doing done.
Re:apparently.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Say all you want about the Indian accent, and the difficluty of american consumers in understanding it, but written english is a whole different ball game.
Most of us Indians, learn English from a very early age, sometimes almost simultaneously with our mother tongue. We learn spellings from pre-school days and grammar for day one in first grade. Indian english is based on british english, and thus the grammar and spellings are identical to british. We study shakespear, wordsworth, woodhouse more than say longfellow, or Poe or Twain
I can empathise with Americans who have lost jobs due to out sourcing, but that hardly gives you the right to make such blatantly flase blanket statements.
Re:No, no, no... (Score:3, Insightful)
Management (Score:2, Insightful)
Scott Adams has documented this phenomemon in one of his Dilbert management books.
Re:Technology does not cause stress (Score:5, Insightful)
Apart from that, everybody keeps looking at stress as though it's a bad thing. I know some of my best work is done under the heavy pressure of stress. While a lot of stress certainly wouldn't be a healthy level for me to maintain, a bit of stress, even really intense stress, can be good for you and keep you from being complacent. I'd hate to lead a completely stress free life.
But finding one is the first step of reseach (Score:3, Insightful)
If the observational evidence is in line with your theory, you can then move on to designing experiements to actually test it. But you need to do the observation first. One reason is that experiements, espically with people, are expensive. You'd better not be wasting a bunch of money on something you have no support for at all other than an intuition. Another is that the observational data can help you decide HOW to design an experiment to test your theory. It's not so easy as just going and doing a test, you have to design one that will test what you want and can actually be implemented. Doubly hard with humans, who can fingure out what you are trying to do to them.
So, provided he's planning on actually running the experiments, this is the first step to good science. Also, being that it is just an undergrad term paper, he may just write about the obvservational data. There is nothing wrong with gathering obversational evidence, analyzing it, then writing a paper on what it could indicate and how experiments could be done to test that.
Good point - here's more (Score:2, Insightful)
Stress is a response, not a stimulus.
Re:I love technology... (Score:4, Insightful)
My CEO doesn't have the ability to say "no" to potential clients (we don't make custom software, but it sure seems like it), so I'm left architecting solutions and don't have time to always do things right or to make them easily integrated with our other products that suffer from this as well.
I can't say no because we're a start-up and aren't doing so hot, yet it's not easy finding a job these days despite my experience and credentials because 1) trade-school graduates are cheaper (and managers eventually learn why, but not soon enough for my benefit), or 2) everything's being out-sourced.
So, go for you that you enjoy things. Really. But not everyone is so lucky. This is a competitive market and it doesn't get easier when cheaper labor exists that can get (barely) get the job done (notice I didn't say "right").
constant growth desirable? (Score:3, Insightful)
We are expected to deliver faster because in many cases technology improves by allowing us to do the same task faster and faster or in a more efficient manner (think of micro-waves, dish washers, GHz processors, High RPMs hard disks, etc.). In turn, it is supposed to give us more time. But what do we do, or rather what are we expected to do with that extra time?
How come we are working over time when technology allows us today to print/write/code/format/spellcheck/indent/syntaxhi ghlight/etc. much faster than before?
I have that awkward impression that I'm expected not only to be quicker, but to produce a lot more than before simply because my printer is faster, my cell phone sends me bigger SMS messages, my CPU is idle waiting for me, telling me that I'm too slow... The human brain's clock speed hasn't improved for a little while, but, mind you, I'm not up to date with the latest e-news on the subject...
A human body is designed to sustain a high level of stress only for a short period of time. In a stressful situation, our blood pressure and adrenaline level rises, and we are ready to either fight or escape the source of stress. In many technology related work environments, workers undergo such a level of stress almost every day and, if not dealt with properly, can lead to the equivalent of a MechWarrior's thermal shutdown; your body says "Sorry boss, I know they're shootin' their lasers at ya, but I give up".
I remember before online-banking I didn't mind waiting in line at the bank. Now, it is somehow less conceivable to wait for 15mn, when you can do the same transaction in 30 seconds from a web browser. Did that buy me 14:30 mn of free, relaxing time? Somehow, I'm not sure... Since I didn't spend 15mn meditating, relaxing, looking around, standing up, while waiting in line at the bank, I can instead continue my coding... In the long run, which alternative is more desirable for a human being?
You assume to much. (Score:5, Insightful)
Technology Failures (Score:2, Insightful)
I love my Kyocera 7135. It helps me track all my projects and appointments, my phone numbers, and I can surf where ever I am. However, I'm a tad clumsy and I've dropped my Kyocera 7135 maybe 3-4 times. That was enough to cause my phone to a pretty undependable state. Right now, my phone crashes a couple times a week and once every few weeks, it crashes bad enough where I lose all my data and I have to resync. Now that's stressful.
I was out of town when this happened and I really needed my contacts to get in touch with my friends (it's been years since I memorized phone numbers.. remember the pager days with pager code? =P). It was quite stressful to not have all my contacts and all the new data since my last sync disappeared.
Technology is a wonderful thing but as a part of evolution, technology becomes a part of our lives. When they fail, it causes us stress. For those of you who dont have PDA phones, think about the last time your hard drive failed to a unrecoverable state. Even with backups, the amount of time you have to spend to replace it is stressful.
Isn't it our responsibility to take the time back? (Score:3, Insightful)
I've previously thought about the issues you outlined above, and I've come to the conclusion that if there is something in my life which gives me back a certain amount of time, it is my responsibility to fill that time the way I see fit. If I don't do that, then the universe will fill it for me.
Now, I may have to consciously fill that time with slacker time, but what's wrong with that? I'd rather "waste" time on my own terms than let someone else do it for me. After all, it's the only real resource over which I have control. Everything else ultimately gets shared with everyone else, whether or not I like it. Granted, there are these things we call "commitments" that take my time, but I actually do have the choice whether or not to fulfill each one of those. I just have to deal with the potential fallout if I decline one or more of those. Then again, there may not be actual fallout for some of them; I may just be afraid of nothing.
Absolute Link (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No shit. Do you own work, Kiddo. (Score:1, Insightful)
I disagree (Score:4, Insightful)
I disagree. This issue is likely more related to the expansion of the user base. I think it's unreasonable to expect every technology user to become an expert; especially considering the proliferation of technology in our everyday lives. For a technology tool to be useful it must also contain a certain amount of intuitive capabilities. Intuition is generally derived from past experience. Since developers and systems designers typically have control over what and how information is presented to the user it is not always practical to expect the user to just "know" what to do next. Perhaps they could burn time reading the poorly constructed directions that the developer created but the reality is usually such that the user just needs to get a task accomplished. Not to become an expert in the technology?
btw...a broken browser is a relative observation. Firfox is "broken" to me when I view certain pages that work fine in IE and Netscape.
Technology is not limited to computers and electronic things. Technology by definition is the practical application of knowledge. It's the shear number of "practical applications of knowledge" that have me feeling overwhelmed, stressed and out of control. So many applications of technology have left me feeling naive and ignorant despite my best attempts to keep up and the fact that I once was considered to be on top of these things. Now I have to be even more concerned with the possibility that what I learned and applied yesterday being considered foolish and flawed tomorrow.
Stress is a reaction to an environmental pressure. The proliferation of new technology certainly has increased mental and physical environment pressures. Someone or something will be affected and therefore stress will always be an absolute consequence of new technology.
Re:I love technology... (Score:5, Insightful)
I should also point out I took a pay cut to take my current job. Last year, even with the extra income from Webslum I made 10% less than I did in 2002. But I had SO much less stress, a better relationship with my wife, and a much more positive outlook. No more shitty black metal poetry in my journal! I'm even starting to save money again.
In summation: I'm sorry your job sucks, but you're the one who took it. Even in a bad market, there are stress free options, but many of them require hard decisions. Like telling your CEO that a product can't be kludged together without becoming unmanagable and requiring a massive amount of work a year down the road. Which is, of course, the sort of thing a good architect tells his boss up front, rather than slipping dates and looking like a fool.
BTW: Even if they eventually want custom features, most of the time, your clients will be perfectly satisfied with what you have now, FOR now, and you can slowly work desired features into the main codebase. This is the ONLY way I've seen customer driven software work. Otherwise, you're stuck supporting multiple code bases, and custom hacking EVERYTHING from here on. Besides, I guarantee your client will need a few weeks (or months, depending on the product) to learn and utilize the current features. In that time, you could engineer a great solution, as opposed to delivering a crappy one right now.
Re:Big Picture (Score:2, Insightful)
I am no longer sleeping above fuel tanks, below the waterline, behind a missile magazine, and forward of a sewage containment, holding and transfer (cht) facility.
I no longer sleep on a top bunk where if I sit up rapidly will break my nose against a light fixture.
My office is not located above a hot-tank (another person) in a chemical plant. I don't run the risk of running through a wash of methyl-ethyl-keytone to halt a chemical spill into lake michigan.
I no longer have to worry about being hosed down with JP5 (jet fuel) when I go to maintain my equipment.
I don't have to be cognizant of what damage control equipment is at hand at all times.
I no longer walk around a military facility with an unloaded pistol as "roving security".
I no longer live in a neighborhood where shootings happen every night even though new neighbors rave about what a nice neighborhood they bought their house in.
I no longer have to use static electricity protection to prevent ordinance from going off in my face. (I use it to handle circuit boards...)
And foremost:
how about (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet the sum of the stress caused by capitalism far exceeds the sum of the stress caused by technology for all of society.
Technology can be made almost stress-free. Can capitalism?
Re:Technology does not cause stress (Score:3, Insightful)
The "up to a point" part is the critical issue. What kills you kills you without making you any stronger, cause, like, yer dead dude.
So, stress up until that point makes you stronger, but push it any farther and things start to break instead of build up.
KFG
Re:I love technology... (Score:3, Insightful)
Novell (Score:1, Insightful)
Zen4 and NDPS with network printers (or LPD computers).
everything is self healing... and automated.
And I can remotely control (view) any one of the 3400 computers that connect to my 5 servers all running novell 5.1.
all computers are imaged over each two week period...
all WOL and are ready when the user comes in...
each with the appropriate printers and any updated MSIs silently installed when they log in....
and policies distributed to the users based on the groups they are a member of.
Dont let your boss read this, if you too know how to setup your network correctly, for you may be out of a job....
We simply act stressed to keep us employeed
or if your one of those egomaniacs who claims he/she knows what they are doing, but cant seem to ever get their network stable, ignore this... since you already knew better.
Expectations and separation (Score:3, Insightful)
Technology now enables us to take our work with us. And the demands of the economy to increase productivity demand that we KEEP our work with us all the time. So it's difficult for people to separate themselves from their work. Which causes conflict and conflict causes stress.
It doesn't HAVE to be like this but for it to happen there has to be a contract between work and leisure so one doesn't overwhelm the other. Such contracts are rare - it takes enlightened management to recognize that workers shouldn't cart their working lives into homes without great reason.
Tools are required to manage information and we're only now starting to develop those to keep us from being overwhelmed by the spam of our daily working lives.
Technology Complicates Life (Score:4, Insightful)
That reliance on complex, unnatural mechanisms is a breeding ground for stress because, hey, complex, unnatural things are more prone to breaks. And unlike more physical things (say, compare a piece of paper to outlook), what you can expect to break changes with each version of the program, operating system, computer, and user.
Complexity does cause stress. People are just doing the best they can. The technological enviornment people work in, however, causes them to appear stupid.
And, of course, some people actually are just stupid.