Causes of stress, todays focus “Digital stress”
Causes of stress, todays focus “Digital stress”
Smartphones and mobile Internet use have become an integral part of many users’ everyday lives. They promise constant access to a wide range of enriching functions of the Internet. At the same time, there is a threat of new stresses due to permanent availability and accessibility. What are the consequences of “digital stress” and how can it be countered?
In recent years, the use of the Internet by Germans has changed abruptly due to the spread of smartphones: While the number of Internet users with mobile Internet access was only just over 10 percent in 2010, almost 70 percent of all users were also surfing on the go in 2016 (source: News Online Study 2016). On the one hand, this development is a blessing: With the smartphone, a number of very central advantages of Internet use become constantly available. For example, the connection to online friends via e-mail, Instagram, TikTok, or so-called messenger services such as WhatsApp never breaks. The smartphone becomes a “digital pocketknife” and a constant companion that fulfills every desire for information, communication, and entertainment, regardless of time and place.
Mobile Internet use thus increases personal autonomy and the scope for action in everyday life. On the one hand. On the other hand, the constant connection to the Internet also creates new challenges. For example, many users experience the new possibilities of online communication not only as a welcome expansion of their own options, but also as a source of stress and strain. The smartphone not only opens up new ways of self-determined use oriented to one’s own needs, but it can also force users into a new corset of expectations and social obligations. Not only does the growing accessibility in everyday life increase the perceived pressure from outside to respond constantly and as immediately as possible to incoming messages. For their part, many users feel the fear of missing something important if they let their smartphone out of their sight for too long.
Study about „ Digital stress “
The consequences that the increasing number of communication contents in everyday life and the perceived pressure for constant accessibility and availability have on one’s own psychological well-being are difficult to foresee so far. The aim of a study conducted in 2015 by the Media Convergence research unit at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz was therefore to investigate the causes and consequences of “digital stress” and to identify possible differences between younger and older users: Are younger people, who have virtually grown up with the Internet, less susceptible to digital stress? Or is their risk higher than that of older users precisely because of their intensive use of new media? To answer these and other questions, a representative sample of German Internet users was surveyed about their usage behavior and their perception of stress.
The results make it clear that new media can indeed be a source of stress in the everyday lives of many users. In particular, a high number of messages sent and received, as well as so-called “Internet multi-tasking,” i.e., using online content while simultaneously performing other activities (e.g., a conversation with friends, a meal, or a work task), contribute to perceived stress. This “digital stress,” the study’s findings further show, can have a negative impact on well-being and psychological health.
Older and younger users showed different susceptibilities to various triggers of digital stress: younger users, for example, suffered less from a high number of online messages received and sent than older users. The latter, on the other hand, were less susceptible to the negative consequences of Internet multi-tasking – presumably not least because this form of use also occurs much less frequently among older users than among younger ones.
So what can be done about the potential risks of digital stress? One supposedly obvious answer would be “simply switch off.” And “smartphone-free” zones and times in everyday life are certainly an important first step in the right direction. However, simply switching off the smartphone does not necessarily help to “switch off” in the figurative sense: little is gained if the smartphone is off, but the mental circling around online events is in full swing. It therefore also seems important to critically question one’s own reflexes and concerns about constant accessibility: Am I really missing something when I’m offline? Don’t I actually miss out on much more when I’m constantly online? The goal must be an individual approach to the new possibilities of the always-on society that enriches one’s own life instead of curtailing one’s own freedom.