Experts offer advice on coping:

Technology overload?

by John Roach

The sun’s out. You decide to log off and go to the park. Upon arrival, you subconsciously check for the smart phone that’s always in your pocket. It’s not there. Now what?

According to a recent report, 68 percent of us would feel disoriented and nervous, a phenomenon labelled “disconnect anxiety.” Instead of relishing the break, we freak out.

What if my BFF texts me? What if my boss e-mails a new job opportunity? What if my mother calls to finally share her brownie recipe?

“It’s not even rational, but that’s the way things are when you’re so used to having something with you,” says Kaan Yigit, a senior researcher with Solutions Research Group in Toronto. The research consulting firm prepared the report on disconnect anxiety after repeatedly hearing people describe panic attacks upon forgetting their cell phones or losing their Internet connection.

Medical professionals and technology researchers say the phenomenon is one of several red flags that our always-connected culture has potentially adverse side effects.

Dr. Jerald Block is a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland who is advocating that technology-related compulsions be included in an updated manual of psychiatric disorders.

He says anxiety and moodiness when deprived of access to technology is one of four key symptoms of a tech-related compulsive behaviour. Other symptoms include excessive use, a rising tolerance and thus a need for more or newer gadgets and software, and serious repercussions with school, work, family, friends or health.

“There has to be something that’s strong enough that drives them into treatment,” Block says.

Almost all cases, he adds, are associated with another disorder such as depression or social anxiety. The excessive use of technology could be a form of self-treatment.

John O’Neill is director of addiction services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. He says researchers are uncertain whether technology obsession is a sign of addiction or something less serious.

But, he adds, technology is creeping into every aspect of our daily lives and distorting our relationships with family, friends, and colleagues in similar ways to drug and alcohol addictions.

“We want to look at that and say what’s going on, what’s happening that makes it so difficult for us to put something down?” he says.”Why is it we’re driving down the road and everybody is on their cell phones? Why is it so tough to not answer e-mails in the middle of a movie or check the BlackBerry repeatedly throughout meetings?”

The behaviours, O’Neill says, take people mentally away from the people at their side - passengers in the car, friends at the movie, colleagues in the meeting - and the task at hand.

“I don’t want to sound too psychobabbley, but that’s what the reality of it is: You’re not physically and mentally present, and that is what I think a healthy, attached relationship requires,” he says.

Nada Kakabadse is a professor of management and business research at Northampton University in England. She says companies need to train employees on proper use of information technology.

For example, many employers provide employees with BlackBerries so they can check their e-mail messages remotely. But the handouts come without corporate rules or warnings.

“Nobody who issues you technology says be careful, you can be addicted to it,” she says. “This just doesn’t happen in real life.” Until it does, Kakabadse advises people to find that balance themselves. Set a time when the only thing you physically connect to is other humans, she says.

Block, the Oregon psychiatrist, says the difficulty is striking the right balance between appropriate and healthy use of technology without developing the more worrisome behaviours.

He likens the difficulty to struggles with alcohol. A few drinks a day can be considered healthy, but the tendency is toward excess, which is detrimental and dangerous.

“Likewise, we’re having to limit our technology use to appropriate levels and not dangerous. And I don’t think we have a clear concept of how to do that,” he says.

According to O’Neill, the vast majority of people integrate technology into their lives in an appropriate manner, but everyone should be open to warning signs from family and friends. “A spouse saying maybe you shouldn’t check your e-mail all night, or maybe you should turn off the BlackBerry right now,” he says.

If a problem is pointed out, he says to make little adjustments to patterns. Disconnect at the dinner table. Ban the BlackBerry from the bedroom. Don’t check e-mail after 8 p.m.

“It’s never about don’t use the Internet, don’t use your BlackBerry, don’t use your text messaging on your cell phone. That’s ludicrous. Nobody is going to agree to that,” he says.

“It’s about figuring out what are some of the warning signs for me that might mean I need to take a step back and set some new rules and develop some boundaries.”

Cultural shift

Yigit of Solutions Research Group suggests that perhaps people are struggling with tech-related compulsive behaviours today because the gadgets and Internet are still relatively new. Children born today, he notes, won’t be able to imagine a world without Internet and wireless technologies, much like most adults today can’t image life without cars.

“Nobody ever questions what cars are doing to our lifestyle or how they’re changing things anymore. It just is,” he says. Ten years from now, he adds, perhaps a lost connection to the Internet will cause temporary discomfort like a flat tire does, but not a panic attack.

We’ll know the connection, like the tire, is readily fixable. Many teens and young adults, he notes, have already decided constant connection is the way of life. All their social plans are made on networking Web sites such as Facebook. No profile, no invitation to the party. “If you want to participate, then you have to be connected,” he says. “It becomes such a dominant norm that opting out is outlier behaviour.”