In This Story
How technostress pushes us past our limits and disconnects us from human pace.
Not long ago, I sat at my desk staring at the little red dots scattered across my screen — notifications, unread messages, unfinished tasks, a dozen digital nudges demanding attention. I felt that familiar tightening in my chest, the quiet whisper: You’re behind again. Behind who? Behind what? I hadn’t stopped working; in fact, I’d been working most of the weekend. Yet somehow my computer, my email, and the constellation of apps around me had already sprinted several steps ahead. This is the hidden cost of living in a world built on machine time. Our digital tools run at a pace humans cannot — and were never meant to. Over the past decade, I’ve watched the rise of technostress seep into the lives of my colleagues, my students, and my own family. It’s taken me years to name what we’re all feeling: the sense of falling short, of never being able to catch up, of always being a little bit behind. And the evidence is catching up too.
The Machine-Human Mismatch
Computers operate on a logic of infinite capacity — unlimited storage, instant response, 24/7 uptime — while humans don’t. Yet the more seamlessly our tools function, the more we begin to internalize their pace as the new normal. Email becomes a conveyor belt rather than a letter; notifications shift from messages to micro-demands; inboxes regenerate faster than we can clear them.
Studies now consistently connect digital overload to stress and burnout. A 2021 systematic review found that technostress predicts emotional exhaustion, cynicism, reduced job satisfaction, and poorer mental health, with the most potent drivers being the ones we experience daily: techno-overload, techno-invasion, and techno-uncertainty. A 2024 longitudinal study further showed that high technostress predicts burnout months later, even after accounting for baseline strain — clear evidence that technology itself can function as a chronic stressor.
The Physiology of Falling Behind
We tend to downplay the health impact of the digital world — after all, it’s “just email” — but our bodies don’t distinguish between digital and non-digital stressors. When work spills into evenings and weekends through email or messaging, the brain remains on alert, depriving us of the psychological detachment needed for recovery; even anticipating a message can keep the nervous system from fully powering down. Sleep suffers as late-night screens delay circadian rhythms, pre-bed messages elevate cognitive arousal, and heavy device use leads to shorter, poorer-quality sleep. Cognitive load grows as micro-interruptions fragment attention, and the body absorbs the strain through headaches, neck and back pain, and eye fatigue — now some of the most common complaints in digital-heavy workplaces. This is not a minor inconvenience; it is a public health issue.
Students: The Perpetually Behind Generation
Students experience these pressures even more intensely. Recent large-scale studies show that smartphone dependence predicts higher learning burnout — emotional exhaustion about school, cynicism about learning, and a diminished sense of academic efficacy. Heavy smartphone and social-media use correlates with sleep deprivation, attention problems, anxiety, and lower academic performance. In some cases, smartphone addiction and academic burnout form a reinforcing loop: burnout drives compulsive phone use, which then worsens burnout. I see this daily on my own campus. Students feel overwhelmed not because they lack ability, but because they inhabit a digital ecosystem that continuously expands demands on time, attention, and emotional energy. Their academic and social lives run through the same device, the same feed, the same dopamine-driven scroll, making genuine rest feel elusive. One student recently told me, “I’m tired before I even start the day.” That is technostress, too.
It's Not You - It's the System
It’s important to emphasize that the inability to “keep up” is not a personal failing but evidence of a structural mismatch. Digital systems are designed for efficiency, speed, and infinite throughput; humans are designed for connection, recovery, and cycles of effort and rest. When we attempt to operate on machine time, we pay the price in our sleep, our health, and our sense of self-worth. The constant low-grade feeling of insufficiency — I should respond faster… I’ll never clear my inbox… I just need a better system… — is a psychological hallmark of technostress. You are not failing. The system is failing you.
What Can We Do?
While we wait for institutions to adapt, there are evidence-based strategies at the systemic, organizational, and personal levels that can help. Countries with “right to disconnect” policies show improvements in work–life balance and reductions in unpaid overtime, and organizations can adopt similar norms even without legislation. Unbounded digital load should be treated as a legitimate occupational hazard. Research also highlights practical organizational levers: batching communications instead of sending a constant drip of messages; encouraging designated email windows rather than continuous checking (one randomized trial showed that checking email only three times a day significantly lowered daily stress); providing robust technical support and training; and modeling healthy behavior — leaders who avoid late-night emails diminish telepressure across entire teams. In my experience, the most transformative shifts occur when leaders explicitly say, “We do not expect you to respond after hours.”
Individual strategies cannot fix a systemic problem, but they can help buffer daily strain. Creating intentional “human hours” for digital engagement — checking communications at set times rather than grazing — can reduce reactivity. Turning off non-essential notifications protects attention from engineered interruptions. Prioritizing sleep remains one of the most powerful recovery mechanisms, especially for students who benefit from a nightly “digital sunset.” And reclaiming moments of true presence — a walk without a device, a meal without multitasking, a conversation without checking a screen — can gradually restore the nervous system. Above all, we must be gentle with ourselves. None of us were built for this pace.
Returning to Human Time
I write all of this not as someone who has mastered balance, but as someone learning in real time. Some evenings I still check my inbox long after I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t; some mornings the red dots still get the best of me. But more often now, I remind myself: machines are supposed to be fast. Humans are supposed to be steady. We don’t need to outrun our computers; we need to reclaim the rhythm that makes us fully alive. If we can remember that — and begin shaping our digital lives around it — we can start to live on human time again.
This story was originally featured on Psychology Today in the Dean's recurring column The Mindful Epidemiologist.
Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels.
References
Borle, P., Reichel, K., Niebuhr, F., & Voelter-Mahlknecht, S. (2021). How are techno-stressors associated with mental health and work outcomes? A systematic review of occupational exposure to information and communication technologies within the technostress model. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 8673. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168673
Chen, C., Shen, Y., Xiao, F., Ni, J., & Zhu, Y. (2023). The effect of smartphone dependence on learning burnout among undergraduates: The mediating effect of academic adaptability and the moderating effect of self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1155544
Chiappetta, M. (2017). The technostress: Definition, symptoms and risk prevention. Senses and Sciences, 4(1), 358–361.https://doi.org/10.14616/sands-2017-1-358361
Kaltenegger, H.C., Marques, M.D., Becker, L., Rohleder, N., Nowak, D., Wright, B.J., Weigl M. (2024). Prospective associations of technostress at work, burnout symptoms, hair cortisol, and chronic low-grade inflation. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 117, 320-329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2024.01.222
Kushlev, K., & Dunn, E. W. (2015). Checking email less frequently reduces stress. Computers in Human Behavior 43, 220-228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.005
La Torre, G., Esposito, A., Sciarra, I., & Chiappetta, M. (2019). Definition, symptoms and risk of techno-stress: A systematic review. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 92(1), 13–35. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-018-1352-1#citeas
Paterna, A., Alcaraz-Ibáñez, M., Aguilar-Parra, J. M., Salavera, C., Demetrovics, Z., & Griffiths, M. D. (2024). Problematic smartphone use and academic achievement: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 13(2), 313–326. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2024.00014
Sánchez-Fernández, M., & Borda-Mas, M. (2023). Problematic smartphone use and specific problematic Internet uses among university students and associated predictive factors: A systematic review. Education and Information Technologies, 28, 7111–7204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11437-2
Sohn, S.Y., Rees P., Wildridge, B., Kalk, N.J., Carter, B. (2019). Prevalence of problematic smartphone usage and associated mental health outcomes in children and young people: A systematic review, meta analysis, and GRADE of the evidence. BMC Psychiatry, 19, 356. https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-019-2350-x