Today we live a reality to which most of us do not escape, as is the use of technology in our activities, such as work, in obtaining information, allows us to interact with our friends and family, do our shopping, in short, for all this we use at least the computer, tablets or phone, which has brought many changes at social, economic and cultural level. In these times of pandemic we have seen how they have facilitated many things that we can now do from home without having to go out, and especially has allowed us to be in contact with other people.

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However, we must be attentive in the use of technology, since experts have long referred to the effects that can cause its misuse, and in function of this have defined the disorders derived in various ways, including as technostress.

One of the broadest definitions is as follows: "Technostress is a negative psychological state related to the use of ICTs or the threat of their use in the future. This state is conditioned by the perception of a mismatch between the demands and resources related to ICT use that leads to a high level of unpleasant psychophysiological arousal and the development of negative attitudes towards ICT."[1]

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Although this phenomenon can be present in different areas of our lives, the focus has been mostly focused on the work level, since work often demands to be connected for a long time, in the day we can be working on the computer for several hours, while being aware of the phone and messages, we can get home and still connected, All this being the cause of technostress and that can become an occupational hazard as it can cause various feelings to the worker as disability or addiction, additionally can generate greater anxiety and increase nervousness influencing the personal level, performance and productivity, adding all this to the stress generated by other situations unrelated to the use of technology.

With the introduction of technology we have seen how we work at a faster pace, sometimes with short time lapse for the execution of activities, sometimes using rest time, because now we are subjected to the increase in the speed of information and constant technological changes.

I particularly remember that in the past, when I said goodbye to my colleagues on Fridays, we did not know anything more about work until Monday. Now they may assign work on weekends or quickly schedule meetings on Sunday night for early Monday morning or other unforeseen activities.

There are several types of technostress characterized by specific symptoms including technoanxiety, technofatigue, technophobia and technaddiction. In some people it is possible that they feel tension and do not feel at ease with the use of technologies, they may even feel fear, so they avoid even talking about them or they do it in a hostile or aggressive way. As in other cases, they may feel the uncontrollable need to be connected at all times, causing discomfort and damaging their social life.

There are several instruments to measure technostress, one used in Spain for example is called RED-TIC, which allows to diagnose it, provides information on its antecedents, its emotional consequences and psychosocial damage. In this way, strategies can be created and applied to address the problem either at the individual or organizational level.

Well friends, I really found it a very interesting topic and that we must take into account in our daily lives, especially with our children and their relationship with technology as well as in my day to day. Particularly I try to look for information on the subject as I observe how my son of only 6 years old is so attracted to technological equipment and I must guide him to make proper use of them and at the right time.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Reference
[1] Technostress. Online Document