I’ve believed for some time that many of us are causing ourselves harm by the way we are constantly connected, and also constantly working.
A new report by The British Psychological Society says that we need to be turning off our smart phones to reduce our stress:
The study established the existence of a helpful-stressful cycle; it found that a device is typically acquired to help an individual manage their work load. However, once the individual starts to use their smart phone the work load management benefits are displaced by the pressure to keep abreast with their new expanded virtual social life. The more an individual becomes stressed and worried the more compulsive behaviours such as checking will occur.
Richard Balding advises organisations to consider this problem seriously:
“Smart phone use is increasing at a rapid rate and we are likely to see an associated increase in stress from social networking. Organisations will not flourish if their employees are stressed, irrespective of the source of stress, so it is in their interest to encourage their employees to switch their phones off; cut the number of work emails sent out of hours, reduce people’s temptation to check their devices.”
Back in 2009 I wrote about My New Fear of Working from Home which highlighted a similar cycle.
My smartish-phone is set to turn itself off in the evening and I try my best to leave it that way.
Via Lifehacker
Graham Chastney 