The Sociology of Stress Flashcards
Douglas Rushkoff’s new series of stressors
Narrative collapse; Digiphrenia; Overwinding; Fractalnoia
Narrative collapse
Too much attention on the present moment prevents people from getting a clear perspective on their lives; love events reduced to myopic tweets & updates
Digiphrenia
The tacit permission to be in more than one place at a time with a variety of social media
Overwinding
The ability to reduce big-time scales into small ones (as a result, getting less done)
Fractalnoia
The anxiety associated with rapid media grazing and jumping to conclusions with incomplete information in the absence of cause and effect perspective
Future shock by Alvin Toffler
Describes the stress that accompanies a proliferation of technology, urban sprawl, and a glut of info on the Internet
Sociology
The study of human social behavior within families, organization, and institutions; the study of the individual in relationship to society as a whole
Technostress
The overwhelming frustrations of sensory bombardment and poor boundaries that result from the plethora of technological gadgets, p. 33
Shallow effect
A shallow understanding of complicated issues that is caused by info grazing; jumping from site to site and cherry-picking info compromises one’s ability to concentrate or focus on something long enough to fully understand all its implications.
Aspects of Technostress
Information overload; Cyber bullying; Identity theft; Cyber hacking; Bandwidth and cloud issues; Boundaries; Privacy; Ethics; Less family time; Computer dating; WiFi stress; Technology and the generational divide (p. 35)
Civility
The practice of good manners and appropriate behavior
Environmental disconnect
A state in which people have distanced themselves so much from the natural environment that they cannot fathom the magnitude of their impact on it
Nature deficit disorder
A term coined by Richard Louv to describe a now-common behavior (affliction) where people (particularly children) simply don’t get outside enough, hence losing touch with the natural world and all of its wonder.
Effects of global warming
violent storms, hotter summers, intense droughts, severe weather patterns, dependence on oil, water shortages
Causes of water shortages
weather, fracking, rapid population growth, increased energy demands, farming irrigation demands, depleted aquifers, limited water supplies
What is the “sixth mass extinction”?
Loss of biodiversity in our modern era
Occupational stress
job-related stress, which often comes from occupation duties for which people perceive themselves as having a great deal of responsibility, yet little or no authority or decision-making latitude
Lipton’s model of holism
where all parts are respected and come together for a greater purpose
Reasons for “job-stress”
low pay, unreasonable workloads, annoying co-workers, poor work-life balance, fear of being laid off (p. 41)
Signs of job-stress
burnout, absenteeism, presenteeism (p. 40)
Definition of stress
The experience of a perceived threat to one’s mental, physical, or spiritual well-being, resulting from a series of physiological responses and adaptations
Superstress, or “future shock”
The inability to cope with an overwhelming amount of change
Results of social stress
Decline in social etiquette, a lack of civility, environmental disconnect
Concept of sociology of stress
“social networking” or the stress that results due to our inability to keep up with all the changes that influence the many social aspects of our lives
