UPM_News_2016

Has the servant become the master? Are digital devices forcing us to stay ‘always on’ at the cost of our mental health and productivity? Learn to spot the early warning signs of digital burnout before it’s too late.

Text: Silja Kudel Photo: Matti Immonen

Slaves to our smartphones

…the calming tactile experience of holding the paper is also a great way of thwarting digital burnout.

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igital devices have revolution- ized our lives in countless ways, freeing us from office cubicles and placing a vast world of information at our fingertips. But is hyper-connec- tivity a blessing or a curse? A growing choir of experts are voicing the opinion that staying wired 24/7 doesn’t make us more productive – much less happier. It’s becoming harder to distinguish between ‘on-time’ and ‘off-time’, ar- gues Leslie Perlow in her book Sleep- ing with Your Smartphone . The Harvard Business School professor laments that we are caught in a “vicious cycle of re- sponsiveness”, obsessively checking our messages and allowing work to in- vade the home.

people work together to create ‘pre- dictable time off,’ people, teams, and ultimately the organization all stand to benefit,” she writes. At worst, hyper-connectivity can lead to a condition known as ‘digi- tal burnout’, a specific type of burnout triggered by digital devices. It has the same symptoms as work-related burn- out, such as loss of motivation, emo- tional exhaustion, sleep disturbances, lowered immunity and depression. But when can we begin to suspect that internet addiction might be becom- ing a problem? “When it becomes dif- ficult for you to quit and when it starts consuming more time than you origi- nally planned,” says Professor Katarii- na Salmela-Aro , co-author of Mind the Gap , a study examining the dark side of internet usage among Finnish adolescents. The study found a correlation to ex- ist between excessive internet usage, school burnout and depression, yet far from demonizing the internet, Salmela- Aro argues that schools should active- ly encourage pupils to use their digital competencies in schoolwork. “We found that students with very high digital competence often feel cyn- ical towards school, as they’re not al- lowed to use those competencies in the classroom. They then disengage and invest all their time and effort into the digital world outside school.” But how much internet usage is too much: when do we know it’s time to switch off? “It’s difficult to say, as it depends on the person. But it’s prob- lematic if you find it difficult to disen-

gage and if it begins to steal too much time from school, work or sleep,” says Salmela-Aro. Print books thrive, Twitter stumbles Certain recent trends suggest that peo- ple are suffering from a growing degree of ‘technology fatigue’ and are seeking out more traditional, tactile experienc- es. Last year saw a revival in tradition- al publishing, with print books sales in the US and UK rising for the first time in four years, while e-books meanwhile suffered a decline. Another interesting development is that Twitter’s user growth plummeted sharply last year, perhaps suggesting that people are no longer quite so ex- cited about exchanging bite-size com- mentaries with online strangers. Readers hungry for real news are more likely to find satisfaction read- ing the daily newspaper. Not only do newspapers contain more detailed in- formation, but they also cover a broad- er range of topics, from politics and fi- nance to sports and culture. The calm- ing tactile experience of holding the pa- per is also a great way of thwarting dig- ital burnout. In any case, as digital technology in- evitably comes to play an increasingly dominant role in our lives, it is up to all of us to consider whether it might be time to switch off our smartphones and pick up the newspaper for the benefit of our health and work-life balance. The world won’t end if we go offline from time to time. Really.

Even during our downtime, we are lured back into the world of work by insistent ringtones and message alerts. We can’t resist sneaking a peek at our smartphone whenever it beckons, even in the middle of a family dinner. We are never fully ‘off’ or relaxed, which is bad for our relationships, our mental health and ultimately also for business. The dark side of the internet Perlow conducted an experiment with a group of workaholics at Boston Con- sulting Group and found that when they made a concerted effort to dis- connect from their digital devices for a few agreed hours every week, the entire group became more productive. “When

Tips for digital detoxing

• Read the newspaper in-depth from cover to cover. • Set an internet curfew: make a pact not to surf after eight in the evening • Don’t answer work mails from home late in the evening. • Don’t jump to respond to every notification. If you’re enjoying a conversation with someone, switch to mute. • Schedule an hour each day for handling email correspondence. Don’t keep checking your messages every five minutes. • Never sleep with your phone. The blue light emitted by devices suppresses the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, resulting in lower quality sleep. Sources: Perlow, Leslie A: Sleeping with Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way You Work, Harvard Business Review press, 2012 Salmela-Aro, K., Upadyaya, K., Hakkarainen, K., Lonka, K. & Alho, K.: The Dark Side of Internet Use: Two Longitudinal Studies of Excessive Internet Use, Depressive Symptoms, School Burnout and Engagement Among Finnish Early and Late Adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2016

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