Tag Archives: stress

The Stress of Technology

The American Psychological Association has released Part 2 of its August 2016 survey of Stress in America dealing with technology and social media. Please see this previous post for basic information about how the survey was conducted.

According to this survey, 99% of Americans own at least one electronic device (which includes radio, television and telephones), 86% own a computer, and 74% own an internet-connected smart phone. The latter two figures seem suspiciously high to me. This may be related to the fact that it was an online survey. (Their methodology section notes that the data were weighted “to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online,” but it doesn’t mention how people who have no internet connection were contacted.)

The Pew Research Center reported that the percentage of Americans using social media increased from 7% in 2005 to 65% in 2015. Among young adults aged 18 through 29, it was 12% in 2005 and 90% in 2015.

The APA survey finds that 18% of Americans say that technology is a very or somewhat significant source of stress in their lives. To put this in perspective, 61% report money as a very or somewhat significant source of stress, and 57% say the same for the current political climate.

Forty-three percent of Americans report that they constantly check their emails, texts or social media accounts, and another 43% check them often. Here is the breakdown of constant and frequent checkers on work and non-work days.

The constant checkers report a higher overall level of stress–5.3 on a 10-point scale, compared to 4.4 for everyone else. For employed Americans who check their work email constantly on non-work days, the overall stress level is 6.0. Of course, they may be people with more stressful jobs, one symptom of which is that they are expected to check their email on non-work days.

Constant checkers were also more likely to see technology as a very or somewhat significant source of stress.

These findings are generally consistent with a 2013 study which found that the more often their participants used Facebook, the lower their moment-to-moment self-ratings of happiness and the lower their overall satisfaction with their lives.

Not surprisingly, millennials (aged 18 to 37) report greater dependence on social media.

They are also more worried about their negative effects.

 

It is predictable that the negative aspects of this survey will be exaggerated by the mainstream media. For example, Bloomberg News ran an article about it this morning with the understated headline “Social Media Are Driving Americans Insane.”

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The Stress of Politics

Finding the Sweet Spot

The Stress of Politics

Since 2007, the American Psychological Association (APA) has contracted with the Harris Poll to conduct an annual survey of Stress in America. Respondents are asked to rate their typical level of stress on a 10-point scale, where 1 = little or no stress and 10 = a great deal of stress. They are also asked to rate a variety of sources of stress as either very significant, somewhat significant, not very significant or not significant.

Until now, the APA survey has been a lackluster affair, with average stress levels remaining pretty much the same from year to year, and the most significant sources of stress being money, work and the economy. But that changed with the 2016 survey, due to the addition of some questions about politics.

The 2016 survey was conducted in August, with a sample of 3511 U. S. adults aged 18 or older. Because so many respondents (52%) reported that the 2016 presidential campaign was a very or somewhat significant source of stress, APA did a followup in January 2017 to see if the political climate had cooled off. January’s survey had a reduced sample size of 1,109—still a respectable number. Unless otherwise specified, the data reported below are from this most recent survey.

The overall stress level increased between August and January, from 4.8 to 5.1 on the 10-point scale. While that may not sound like much of a change, this was the first time in the history of the survey that there was a statistically significant increase in stress between consecutive samples. The percentage of respondents reporting physical symptoms of stress also increased, from 71% in August to 80% in January. The most commonly-reported symptoms were headaches (34%), feeling overwhelmed (33%), feeling nervous or anxious (33%), and feeling depressed or sad (32%).

As in previous years, economic and job-related sources of stress were among the the most important. Sixty-one percent reported that money was a very or somewhat significant source of stress; 58% said the same for their work; and 50% for the nation’s economy. However, these numbers were rivaled by three stressors related to politics.

Not suprisingly, responses to two of these questions were influenced by political partisanship. Democrats were more likely than Republicans to be stressed by the election outcome (72% vs. 26%), and by concern about the future of the country (76% vs. 59%).

Stress about the election outcome was influenced by several demographic variables. It varied by race.

It also varied with age.

And it varied by place of residence.

Education also made a difference, with 53% of those with more than a high school education being stressed out by the election outcome, compared to 38% with a high school education or less.

Some stressors that were presidential campaign issues increased in importance since the last survey. Those saying that terrorism was a very or somewhat significant source of stress went from 51% in August to 59% in January. Those concerned about police violence toward minorities went from 36% to 44%. And the rate of concern over one’s own personal safety increased from 29% to 34%.

Here’s the breakdown of concern about police violence by race. Black respondents appeared to show a ceiling effect. Their stress level didn’t increase very much because it was quite high to begin with.

Americans are usually described as apathetic about politics.  Partisan political conflict usually declines after a presidential campaign is over, but that hasn’t happened this year. Stress over the election outcome is almost as high (49%) as stress over the campaign itself was (52%). It is tempting to attribute this to a growing awareness among Americans that they have elected a man who is unfit to be president, or to the fact that Republicans seem determined to proceed with a political agenda most of which is not supported by a majority of citizens. Unfortunately, we don’t have historical data with which to compare stress over this election outcome to the same question after the 2000 and 2008 elections.

We also can’t be certain whether the rhetoric of the presidential campaign increased concern over terrorism, police violence and our personal safety, since perceptions of those stressors may have been influenced by real events that occurred between August and January, i.e., actual acts of terrorism or police violence. However, it seems obvious that Donald Trump tried to elevate anxiety about terrorism and personal safety to an unrealistically high level. The APA survey suggest that he may have been successful. Whether Hillary Clinton’s campaign raised concerns about police violence is less clear, since she typically called for greater respect for the police as well as clearer use of force guidelines.

You may also be interested in reading:

So Far, It Looks Like It Was the Racism

Why the Minority Rules

Framing the Debates