The update changed everything. You do not know where anything is.
Literal meaning Techno- — technology. Stress — physiological and psychological strain in response to demands. Technostress is stress produced directly by the use of technology or by the inability to use it effectively.
Origin Craig Brod coined technostress in 1984 to describe the difficulty workers experienced adapting to computer technology. Tarafdar et al. (2007) established the modern framework, identifying five techno-stressors: techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty. The concept has since expanded to cover all age groups and contexts.
Stress produced by the use of digital technology — or by the inability to use it effectively — documented across all age groups.
The Appeal Technology genuinely increases capability and access. Technostress is partly the cost of using powerful tools.
The Friction Tarafdar et al. (2007) document that technostress reduces productivity, increases role conflict, and impairs job satisfaction. For older users, the cost is compounded: Ageism (Digital) means systems are designed and updated without them in mind. The stress is not produced by technology in the abstract but by specific design choices — interfaces that change without warning, error messages that provide no guidance, update cycles that require continuous relearning.
Why This Matters Once you see technostress as a design outcome rather than individual incapacity, you see that the question is not how to help people cope with technology — it is why technology is designed in ways that require coping.
Related terms: Digital Overload · Tech Abandonment · Ageism (Digital) · Attention Economy · Digital Exclusion · Technofeudalism · Universal Design
Read more:
- Technostress: Dark Side of Technology in the Workplace — Giorgi, G. et al. (2020). Frontiers in Psychology
- The Impact of Technostress on Role Stress and Productivity — Tarafdar, M. et al. (2007). Journal of Management Information Systems