The New Sources of Stress in Modern Society

In a recent study from Statistics Canada, 23 presents of people over the age of 15 reported that their days are “extremely” stressful, and among the 35 to 54 age group the number rises to 30 presents. Work is the leading cause of stress among the population but changes in new modern political, environmental, financial and technological landscape are adding more load in our daily stress level. In this paper we will discuss these new territories of stress and how to cope up with those.

Political Events Causing Stress

The most dangerous incident which actually changed the world dynamics in last decade was the incident of 9/11. Dr. Richard Amaral, a registered psychologist in Markham, said the event of 9/11 actually made terrorism global and changed the definition of stress in a global way. People from all financial and social background become susceptible and they understood the vulnerability of the society. People from all backgrounds and races irrespective of their socioeconomic background suddenly become victim of stress. But the new political and social changes and its negative outcomes has been further refined in recent years. In 2016 American presidential election won by Trump and UK’s decision of leaving European Union are the two top most events happened in recent times. The effect of those two major political changes actually accumulating a high level of stress factor on normal people around all over the world. (who may or may not lives in US or UK) UK was named as global finance center in Europe but after the Brexit all the financial industry of UK would have to shift in different country as rules of EU operation has changed in UK after their decision. Suddenly all the international employee who works in UK came under a great deal of stress. This is one of the biggest examples of systemic stress in recent years.

According to an assessment from a Washington-based policy think tanks there are some significant threats to the global political system this year which are directly related to President Donald Trump's administration and which can increase general people’s anxiety and stress level. Fred Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council was concerned that US and world is going to face some severe political and economic shocks in recent years. The shocks which actually make global stress level more accurate are Potential trade wars following the Trump administration's imposition of new aluminum and steel tariffs, which could be exacerbated by additional trade measures against China, a historic U. S. -North Korea summit, taking place as early as May, which could greatly reduce or heighten the risk of war on the Korean peninsula and the third shock is the decision between US and Iran about the nuclear deal which may increase significant tension.

All the above mentioned global activities does not have any direct relation with come man’s day to day life but indirectly all of them are integrated to our future. According to the American Psychological Association election outcomes actually causing stress among people irrespective of their social or geographical location.

Lynn Bufka, a psychologist and the APA's associate executive director for practice research and policy analyzed the relation between common man’s stress level and the political events. She assumed constant access to the TV and social media is largely contributing our stress level. According to her common man does not have any say in terms of political leader’s decisions and policies as they don’t know what exactly to expect from leaders. Regardless of political affiliation of common man actually they are clueless about their own future which causing a great stress in them.

Financial/Economical Downturn Causing Stress

In 2007–2008 with the bankruptcy of Lehmann Brothers Inc. , began a very deep financial crisis with in the US. With in few months it has spread all over the world and all major financial hub of world were affected by it. People from all over the world lost jobs, homes, savings moreover the stability of life. Worldwide unemployment rate was grown significantly at times of recession. Workers from all over the world come under extreme stress due to this incident. Various research had done to understand the impact of recession on human life some of the suggest that the financial crisis also had a far-reaching impact on people who were too young and not directly linked with financial crisis. If parents experience extreme stress their children also become the victim of stress indirectly. In 2018 after 10 years even after the economic position changed a bit for families but the children who experienced major upheavals during their formative years will likely live with the consequences their whole lives. Studies from Harvard University’s Center for the Developing Child have shown that toxic stress can have some cumulative effect on individual’s mental and physical health for lifetime. Children want support and love in their growing age if they feel supported and loved they face a less long term impact on their physical or mental health. But when the adults are themselves circumvent into deep stress it becomes difficult for them to provide desired support and sense of safety and care to the children which children need at those age. Several studies on the effects of the financial crisis on human health and stress illustrate this point. One study of babies in Iceland conducted by Geir Gunnlaugsson, a professor of social and human sciences at the University of Iceland, reveled that the rate of newborns with low birth weights rose from 2% before the financial crisis (between 2003 and 2008) to 3. 4% (between 2009 and 2013).

Birthweight itself is an important predictor of survival and development factors of newborns. It is very serious symptom to be ignored. If mother is in high stress during her pregnancy the chances of low birth weight during delivery is highly likely. That particular study also shown that the pregnant woman of low income families who were more prone to stress due to financial crash were given birth of babies with low birth weight. Studies showed that in the US, between October 2008 and March 2009 alone, 712, 000 jobs were lost every month. Jobless parents were unable to fulfill basic needs of children like food, clothing, shelter which impacted negatively for child’s mental health. Financial and economic downturn not particularly related to any specific country it has its impact mostly all over the world. People from all the races and socioeconomic backgrounds become victim of stress due to these events. The most dangerous thing is remedy is not in their hands as economic and financial policies are determined by global leaders only.

Technological Changes Causing stress

Computers and smart phones will continue to reshape human interactions and humanity in the coming decades. Human brains are locked in a fixed biological structure, and we are having a hard time to adapt our new reality every day. Human species gone through agricultural revolution, scientific revolution and industrial revolution in the past. Now we are in the phase of technological revolution and it's causing stress and chaos for many of us. Internet addictions are can have very negative impact on our mental health. Social media addictions and gaming additions are increasing at alarming rates. If we look at social media alone, it's found that 18% of social media users can't go a few hour without checking Facebook and that it's estimated that the average American spends nearly one quarter of their working hours browsing social media for non-work related activities. In the age of social media people had to maintain a large network of friends on Facebook, they had to reply text messages in various social networking sites, they had to be always alert of their status update all the times on Facebook and Twitter. These all activities are becoming a significant part of our day to day life and making our life more stressful. Besides that, there are chances of coming stress from jealousy which is directly inclined with the well pictured and documented life of friends and families on Facebook and Instagram.

Other aspect of technological change called automation directly related to people’s work related stress of low job security. According to a recent study from researchers at Ball State University and Villanova University (Data used from General Social Survey, County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, 2015 American Community Survey, and 2014 Statistics of U. S. Businesses) workers in jobs with higher risk of automation reported less job security, which, in turn, was vulnerable to poorer health. It shows that a 10 percent rise in the risk of automation at the county level resulted in percentage-point decreases of 2. 38 in general health, 0. 8 in physical health and 0. 6 in mental health.

The research also shows that 10 percentage-point increase in automation risk raises the costs of overall health-related productivity loss by $24 million to $174 million because of the increase in prevalence of poor or fair health, $6 million to $40 million because of increased physical distress, and $7 million to $47 million because of higher mental distress.

Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation are going to transform our world. A study from Mckinsey Global Institute indicates that by 2030 automation could eliminate as much as 30 percent of world’s human job (may represent 400 to 800 million jobs worldwide) and requiring almost 375 million people to switch their job categories. Switching in job categories can itself cause a severe stress among people all over the world apart from losing jobs. The jobs which are going to be eliminated are mostly middle skilled which does not require much training. So reskilling the people of blue collar jobs is going to be painful. As a significant amount of training and education is needed to reskill them towards high skilled jobs. So transition is going to be extremely painful and will cause a significant amount of stress among workers.

Coping up with Systemic Stress

We can’t eliminate the social, political, economic factors from our life completely as they are part of our system. What we can do is we can minimize the effect of those stress from our life with some disciplined lifestyle. We need to get some time off from the social media detach ourselves from constant news updates give our brain some break. We need to develop a hobby like gardening, reading a book or cooking and enjoy the hobby and get ourselves a schedule for workout which actually help us in long run.