Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age

by Felicia Wu Song

Psychologists and neuroendocrinologists are increasingly concerned that our current digital practices are causing our cortisol levels to rise more frequently. The mere sight of our phones nearby or even the perception that we have heard a notification has the capacity to elevate our cortisol levels. Interestingly, Google issued a report in 2018 noting that constant exposure to social media, email, and news apps on smartphones is contributing to mounting stress in users who feel obligated to keep up on the latest notifications.11 According to Greenfield because this stress creates discomfort, we often feel compelled to check our phones in order to relieve the stress. However once we do check, we usually encounter something newly unexpected that causes our cortisol level to rise yet again, and we feel further compelled to resolve that anxiety by further pecking at our phones. This is how we slip into a cycle of experiencing stress, attempting to alleviate the anxiety and only to elicit a new wave of stress—again and again. As our body’s main stress hormone is activated when we perceive a threat, our bodies physiologically prepare for a fight-or-flight response that rarely is quite what we need. A rise in cortisol causes temporary spikes in our blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar which increases one’s risk to a whole gamut of serious health problems over the long haul. It also impairs our brain’s prefrontal cortex, having the effect of decreasing our ability to self-r...