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Stress in the Information Age
Getting late for a meeting? Are you playing drums right now? So much stress happening!!!
Sanjay Chugh
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Illustration: Samia Singh |
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THIS IS the story of Srinivas — the prototypical information junkie! He wakes up in the morning as the alarm goes off on his smart phone, angrily switches it off and (compulsively) does a quickscan of the mails too! Instead of the newspaper, he carries his tablet to the bathroom, while intermittently replying to a few mails. He gets dressed in less than half-an-hour and has his breakfast (along with his headache pill) in front of the television set and takes a few calls as he does this.
And THIS is just the beginning of the day!
At work, Srinivas is considered to be one of the prime assets that the company has. He is smart, intelligent, tech-savvy, and seems to have all the information one might be looking for. Srinivas has a cubicle (nay, not the corner office, but he thinks he is getting there soon, mark his words) where he jabbers away on his ‘handsfree’ as he punches on his keypad with one eye glued to the telly screen. The Bluetooth earpiece seems to have become an extension of his ear. To take a break, he likes to catch up with his reading on Kindle. (Phew!!)
However, lately everything is not honky dory in Srinivas’ life. He feels that his efficiency levels are dropping. He tends to get irritable and finds himself unable to concentrate on work. The tasks that he was able to finish in a jiffy earlier, now takes ages to complete. He visited the doctor for the headaches that seem to be perpetually there. He finds himself waking up at odd hours in the night and then is unable to toss himself back to sleep. The boss called him in the other day to ‘suggest’ that perhaps he had been working so hard, he ‘deserved’ to take a break.
What Srinivas is going through is something that a vast majority of our urban population is experiencing — a ‘nervous meltdown’ of sorts caused by information overload. His memory disc is full and he doesn’t realise it.
Thanks to the Knowledge Era, we have limitless access to information about anything under the sun. We can not only retrieve this information, we would also like to store it and share it with friends and colleagues. Geographical boundaries exist only on the map these days as we can talk, exchange data, conduct meetings, hold lectures in real time with people sitting several thousand miles away from us on other continents.
Unfortunately, this has a flip side. The facts, figures, numbers, perceptions, data, analyses, and opinions that we have at your fingertips have made us numb and paralyzed — in the head!
To add to the chaos, the moment we begin to get the hang of one gadget, out comes another, faster, sleeker, sexier. As a result, we talk more to the phone than to people. We prefer to look the tablet in the eye but not the lover. Instead of meeting in the park we like to date online. Our frustration builds to a peak when a website takes three extra seconds to load.
The result? Headaches, back pain, Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ) irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, disturbed blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Cognitively too, we seem to be headed downhill, contributing to poor memory, inability to take decisions, focus and process information.
The only sure-shot way of combating this stress is to bring about a major lifestyle change. This may sound very clichéd, so let’s talk in more comprehensible terms. The first thing that we need to do is ‘Slow Down’. Make time for ‘Unwinding’. ‘Get Active’ and get some exercise. Sweep the floor of your room once a week, take the steps, walk to the nearby market instead of taking the car, park the car at a distance so you get to walk a furlong, keep your used glasses and plates in the kitchen yourself. Learn to ‘Eat Healthy’ and most important Priortise’.
Simple, isn’t it?
So get on the treadmill NOW.
The author is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist practising in Delhi.
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