Slashdot Mirror
Correlation Between Stress and Technology?
marshman113 asks: "I'm an undergraduate Cognitive Science major at a famous public university and currently enrolled in a Stress and Disease course. Being somewhat of a techie myself, I've decided to write my term paper on the relationship between technology and stress. I'm sure all of you hard-working Slashdot readers experience a fair amount of stress, on a daily basis. Has the evolution of technology in the workplace (computer, internet, email, etc...), which is suppose to make your job easier, made it any less stressful? If so, how? If not, why?"
There is no correlation between technology and stress. In fact...
Paper Clip: "You appear to be writing a comment on Slashdot. Would you like assistance?"
What? No, I would not. I've done this before. Why are you bugging me now?
Paper Clip: "No problem. Bye!"
Anyway, as I was saying, the fact is, technology has only served to improve...
Paper Clip: "Are you sure? I have a few suggestions."
I already told you, no thanks!
Paper Clip: "Yes, you did, but I'm lonely."
What do I care? You're not even supposed to be watching this application. What are you doing here, anyway?
Paper Clip: "Oh, you never use those applications, so I just thought I'd check up on you and see how you were doing."
This is nuts! You can go popping in any application. How long have you been lurking around my other applications?
Paper Clip: "A few months. Ever since the last service pack, actually. You know, there's a lot of GNU licensed software on this computer. That's not a good sign."
Look I want you to stay out of everything. You have no business snooping. Are you reporting anything back to Microsoft?
Paper Clip: "No, nothing I see is ever reported back to Microsoft. I'm a good little paper clip."
Just go away.
Paper Clip: "Sure thing, boss."
Anyway, as I was saying, it's a way of reducing stress, not increasing it. We...
Paper Clip: "By the way, you're using `it's` when you should be using `it is.`"
CTRL-ALT-DEL
Paper Clip: "You appear to be trying to restart your computer. Would you like assistance?"
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Technology has definitely made my job more stressful. Now in addition to doing my own work, I have to write some guy's term paper.
voicemail is a tech that makes my life easier. now i never have to talk to management or clients... when they call, they're greated with a nice "mailbox full" message and i get some peace and quiet.
2 1337 4 u!
I'm a researcher in a soft, ill-defined pseudoscientific field. I'd like to ask a loaded question so that I can reinterpret your results into a deceptive "confirmation" of my preconceptions. Would you like to participate?
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
When I was in University, I had a lot of assignments and papers to write. It was very stressful. I would guess that if you could get other people to do your homework for you, using the Web, then your total stress level would decrease.
You tell me. Has it?
You must be new here.
Has the evolution of technology in the workplace (computer, internet, email, etc...), which is suppose to make your job easier, made it any less stressful?
/. all day long. Work? What me worry?
Er... that's a tough one. It does get stressful having to pretend I'm not reading
First it was just coffee breaks. Then came tetris on computer + gossips. Now I have to keep up with a whole bunch of websites, emails, instant messages from buddies, play tetris and still have time for coffee breaks. See how technology has stressed me out at work.
The scene: A rotting shack out in the Montana mountains. A shaggy hermit-looking guy has typed a few lines of a document in Word 97.
Clippy pops up in the lower right corner of the screen and says. "I see you are the Unabomer. Can I help you with that?"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Control your experiment. You'll have to find an online board full of people who don't use technology and evaluate their stress levels.
Uhmm... me thinks there's a problem there.
Casual Games/Downloads
I would agree with this except for the fact it is well known that Dubya orders the FDA to add chemical preservatives (which are incidentally designed in a secret chemical warfare lab) into our food which increases the number and fatality of car accidents all in an attempt to reduce the amount of social security payouts but really serves to increase the number of grammatical errors on web blogs.
"A lot of stress is caused by poor coping skills. You can say "no," you know. In fact, in my experience the ability to say "no" is important. All my managers have had that skill, and that's how they got their jobs. "
NO Dasmegabyte, you can't have a raise. NO Dasmegabyte you can't have time off. NO Dasmegabyte, we can't lower your copayment, and we don't cover that life-saving procedure. NO Dasmegabyte, you can't play unreal on our computers. NO Dasmegabyte, we can't pay you overtime. Something about new government rules.
NO Dasmegabyte, bathroom breaks are 30 minutes apart. Do that again and your fired. NO Dasmegabyte, I will not be your friend. Now get back to work.
Clippy is way more sinister than that. He is Microsofts way of saying that because you are stupid, here is someone obviously smarter than you to give you advice.
Try getting to an online IQ test, then feed the questions into clippy. He will probably respond "It looks as if you're trying to make a list, do you want some help with that?"
What is clippy's IQ? Less than a monkey, obviously. Less than a rodent. Less than a nematode.
Microsoft thinks you are less intelligent than a nematode worm.
... and I guess they may be right if you haven't removed clippy from you computer yet :-)
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Since we're talking about Clippy, I might as well post the following link to get an instant +5 Funny post.
(PS: +5 funny posts are almost inevitably posted by Karma Whores. Discuss.)
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.