Technology provides benefits, like resources, information, connection to old or far-away friends and families, humor, opportunities, and more. While technology enhances our lives, it creates considerable challenges for kids and adults alike and is a consequential driver of the rise in anxiety, stress, depression, suicide, and other disorders. Diminished Empathy, Lower Barriers to Cheating, and Decreased Distress Tolerance are the final three of the eleven challenges we have identified in how technology impacts anxiety.
Diminished Empathy
Technology vastly decreases interpersonal communication. Devices and apps create a physical barrier from those we communicate with. This leads kids and others to type things, particularly acronyms, they would not normally say in person. Many kids use or receive the acronym KYS (kill yourself) as an intended joke, meaning “You should be embarrassed.” No one can know what recipients might be going through at the moment -they may not receive it in the way in which it was intended.
Physical distance begets emotional distance and people forget the consequences of words and actions. Distance interferes with our natural feelings of empathy. The misfortunate who delve into the comments section of articles witness this firsthand.
Experts estimate 40 + 90% of human communication is non-verbal. The problem with communicating over devices is that much can get lost in translation without tones of voice, body language, and expressions. Emojis can only take us so far 😍. Opportunities for misinterpretation abound, stirring anxiety in senders and receivers.
Empathy for and from others strengthens feelings of connection and diminishes anxiety and stress. Sherry Turkle, MIT psychologist and author of Reclaiming Conversation explains, “Face-to-face conversation is the most human — and humanizing — thing we do. … It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy. It’s where we experience the joy of being heard, of being understood.”
Reduced empathy fosters increased bullying. Bullying typically took place before or after or during school. It now happens 24/7 over technology. Even smart kids do silly, stupid, or worse things on the internet.
An article from psypost.org, shares studies that validate theories that violent video games desensitize people to violence. Desensitization from feeling for others in pain is another way technology depletes human empathy.
Low Barriers to Cheating
Humans can use tricks to help themselves make healthy choices -they can make things that are good for them easier and what’s bad for us harder. People can leave their gym bags packed by the door, and they can keep junk food on higher shelves. It used to be quite hard to cheat -getting copies of others’ papers or tests had to be thoughtfully executed. Now ChatGPT and other information are a click away and can be tempting in moments of frustration or desperation. Both resisting the allure of cheating and cheating itself increase anxiety.
Decreased Distress Tolerance
Distress Tolerance is a vital piece of optimism and resilience. Technology allows us to hide away from stressful situations rather than communicate and deal with them which raises anxiety. Delaney Ruston’s daughter Tessa in “Parenting in the Screenage,” observes, “Screens are now very easy to turn to and allow other people to look busy in awkward situations. Anxiety levels go down the more times you go through awkward situations, but when these situations are never faced it is harder to reduce the anxiety for other awkward moments.”
Harvard Health agrees. A proven method to reduce anxiety is to allow stressful situations -to figure out how to cope with them rather than avoid them. ‘The whirring emotional center of the brain known as the limbic system requires time and tools to calm down enough to let the thinking (cognitive) center of the brain come back online.’
We cannot reverse course on the advancement of technology, but whyfully will offer ideas to help families chart the waters to lessen the impact of technology storms. Receive a complimentary copy of Whyfully’s guide: Tech and Anxiety -What Can I Do? when you sign up for our email list! Sign up here.
The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.
~ Thomas Sowell