Do you have your e-mail program set to automatically beep when you receive new mail? Do you take your cell phone with you to the movies (restaurant, in the car, etc.)? Do you take your laptop with you on vacation? Do you call in for voice-mail messages on your "flex" day? Have you changed your bedtime, or do you sleep less, so you can spend more time online?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you could be exhibiting signs of "technostress."

Technostress, which researchers define as the negative effect of technology on people's thoughts, attitudes, behaviour or bodies, affects everyone to some extent because of the proliferation of electronic devices present in our daily lives: television sets, ATMs, computers, microwaves, VCRs, and cellular phones among others.

Internet users are expecially susceptible because of the stress evoked by their high expectations of technology, their dependence on it, pride in their computer grear and know-how, and all the waiting they do for connections to go through and programmes/web sites to load.

Everyone is experiencing technostress to one degree or another. It does not relate to your level of technological know-how and can be as subtle as losing your train of thought in a conversation or as obvious as insomnia.

Some ways to cope with technostress are: suppress the new mail beep on your e-mail program and only check it when "you" choose the time; make your voice mail work for you by forwarding your calls directly into your voice mail so you have some uninterrupted time (don't forget to make an appropriate message -- something like "Hi, I'm working on a complicated project right now, but will get back to you as soon as I take a break"); turn the ringer off on your cell phone or, better yet, leave it at home when you go out.

If you want to know more about technostress, check out the book Technostress: Coping With Technology At Work, At Home, At Play by Michelle M. Weil and Larry D. Rosen.

edited by Jill Tate, local 951, from
"The Seeker Magazine", http://www.the-seeker.com