ARE YOU AFFLICTED WITH "TECHNO-DESPAIR"?
I hope not, but some apparently are these days:
" The world is in midst of an emotional meltdown," according to Dr. Judith Orloff.
Citing recent reports that levels of anxiety, insomnia and stress are on the rise among workers worldwide, Dr. Orloff said in a recent interview that she believes we can attribute many of these troubles to technology.
Orloff is the author of The New York Times' bestseller "Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself from Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life."
People are so overwhelmed with the variety and quantity of technology available today, says the assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, that they're suffering from "techno-despair."
Techno-despair refers to the feelings of depression, insomnia and anxiety that stem from an ever-increasing reliance on technology.
While Dr. Orloff doesn't deny that technology offers a lot of benefits -- from enabling us to "catch up with 100 friends on Facebook" instantly to providing us real-time news and information -- it can also lead to many problems when that technology breaks down (or simply doesn't work the way we expect it to).
"We've become addicted to instant gratification," Dr. Orloff says. And it is this addiction that leaves us even more vulnerable to feelings of impatience, anxiety, nervousness or depression when we can't get what we want, right when we want it.
Not only does research increasingly suggest that reliance on technology can affect our mental health, but Dr. Orloff has also witnessed it firsthand -- especially in the workplace.
"I've seen people go into panic attacks because files disappear, and they don't know how to deal with it," she says. Fortunately, Dr. Orloff says there is an antidote to this techno-despair: patience. Patience is the key to increased satisfaction, higher productivity and lower stress at work.
Of course, patience comes in short supply these days and, like any other workplace skill, must be learned and practiced. Dr. Orloff was kind enough to provide the following tips, adapted from "Emotional Intelligence," her latest book, to help employers and employees learn patience and fight this new workplace phenomenon."

Read the whole thing--there are ways, of course, to fight techno-despair, and the article goes into those...

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we
aren't really living." -Gail Sheehy