Right now, I have 628 unread emails in my work inbox. That’s in addition to seven unread Signal messages, a few unopened Telegrams, dozens of texts coming in (both personal and professional), and a whole separate Google work suite to contend with for another professional project, with an impossible number of comments appearing daily within the documents therein.
Let’s not forget the various other apps required for work—Asana, Slack, Gusto—not to mention the two-factor authenticators needed to log into them.
Together, the cacophony of buzzes and pings these apps elicit constitutes a very normal way of working in 2026. In fact, compared to many, my technological load is probably light.
Already at max capacity with the 24-hour news cycle and never-ending scrolls of social media, knowledge workers’ cognitive loads get exponentially heavier each day as they log into their computers. Or, more realistically, those loads remain heavy overnight, as notifications from bosses and colleagues can arrive at any hour.
And now? The weight of these layers upon layers of tech has working professionals at a breaking point.
A 2026 review of research about technology-related stress at work found that tech overload “damages overall well-being, engagement, and life satisfaction” for employees. For example, one 2024 survey that asked 142 workers about “the dark side of digital working effects” found that “fear of missing out on information” was a “risk factor” for employee mental health, while “information overload” led to increased exhaustion. Both “elevated digital workplace stress.”
Meanwhile, the interruptions to this information gathering won’t let up. Per a 2024 study on “interruptions of office workers,” instant messages and emails (and sometimes chatting colleagues) took up more than two hours of employees’ workdays.
Not only is this a lot to process for creatures that evolved using tools like sticks and rocks, but, as my editor put it when assigning this story, “It makes me feel like I’m in a trance and just fries my brain, and it also never ends!”
According to experts who spoke with Fast Company, the psychological toll of this tech overload—sometimes referred to as “technostress”—can not only distort our views of what’s manageable at work, but can also lead to long-term effects like chronic stress and diminished focus, and even hurt our social relationships.
What technostress is
It comprises a range of tech-rooted plagues, including interruptions (like notifications you get in the middle of writing an email) and Zoom fatigue (the burnout that comes from communicating by screens all day), according to information technologies professor at HEC Montreal business school, Stefan Tam. The effects span all ages and demographics, Tam says.
“We all feel the same way—that sense of not being able to keep up,” says Melissa Perry, dean of the College of Public Health at George Mason University in Virginia. That’s normal, she adds, when spending “six to 12 hours a day on screens.”
“The human brain is not meant to process information simultaneously, so it engages instead in task-switching,” Tam says. That’s different from what we’ve come to know as multi-tasking (something that research shows humans aren’t truly capable of anyway), as it indicates not being able to truly focus on more than one activity at a time. When we think we’re multi-tasking, we’re really just alternating between many tasks rapidly, and it tires us out.
Not only can task-switching be “extremely stressful,” it further leads to “information overload,” adds Tam, making workers unable to attend to any one task with deep concentration.
What’s happening psychologically
Even though working with multiple layers of tech has harmful consequences, our biology might encourage us to do it anyway.
“The brain is a pleasure-seeking organ, and novelty is a form of pleasure,” says Perry. Like scrolling through TikTok or Instagram, new messages popping up on our various screens activates the brain’s reward system, so we’re drawn to them. “I use that to explain the paradox of an overflowing inbox, where you’ve got 200 read but unanswered messages,” Perry says, “But that doesn’t stop you from still opening that next brand-new message.”
Even while new messages can spike our dopamine, a reward-oriented neurotransmitter, they can also spark “a sudden jolt of cortisol,” a hormone associated with stress, says Alane Daugherty, a professor focused on wellbeing at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona. Every new ping means a task to which workers must attend, and the unpredictability (plus the regularity with which they occur) all keep us on edge—not to mention piles new stress atop the lingering anxiety from unanswered emails. “We’re primed to respond to our environment,” Daugherty says. And yet? Our bodies are made to have that response—but then come back to calm.”
With the constant demands of various technology, for many knowledge workers, that calm never comes.
What are the effects?
Because all this technology ostensibly increases workers’ productivity, they often make a critical mistake. “We—consciously or unconsciously—believe that we can keep up with machines,” Perry says.
The gratification of the well-organized calendar, for example, makes it so seamless to schedule our days in a way that looks manageable on screen, it becomes second nature to over-book. Software that offers flowcharts for project management simplifies major tasks into keywords designated to pleasingly designed boxes, making them appear easier to accomplish than they are.
But soon enough, you realize, “‘I can’t even keep up with the number of meetings that I’ve just scheduled’,” says Perry—or, more broadly, with “‘the number of digital demands coming my way’.”
This deluge of tech-based demands can also have long-term effects.
“Our brains are malleable,” says Daugherty; they adapt to our daily experiences. “If we’re always distracted by emails or always on high alert because this text is coming in, or we’re upset because we saw something on social media, we’re teaching our brain to respond to that,” she says. “We’re losing our capacity to be calm.”
We also may be losing other capacities, like our ability to focus, and therefore think critically, as well as our ability to connect with others. Our focus gets stripped away the more we become accustomed to bouncing from one app to the next. Stress from this overload can take a toll on our empathy, not to mention that virtual communication isn’t natural for humans.
“Our brains evolved to rely on faces, eye contact, the reassuring tone of another person’s voice to feel connected and at ease,” says Perry. “It’s super hard to cultivate trust on screen without some of those nonverbal, reassuring cues.”
Unfortunately, these negative effects stand to worsen over time, as the technology we use at work can be habit-forming. “We really are addicted to technology, and it’s getting worse,” Daugherty says.
While the dopamine hits that come from receiving positive messages obviously facilitate this, we can also get addicted to the bad feelings born from our daily tech use. “We get addicted to stress, too,” says Daugherty, the more we get accustomed to feeling it. “Our brain gets kind of lazy,” she adds, “and it wants what feels familiar.”
Think of how uncomfortable it can feel to leave your phone at your desk while walking to grab lunch—even though bringing your phone and having it blow up with notifications could be just as stressful.
Can AI save us?
AI can take on tasks that minimize the number of notifications received throughout the day. Tam, however, suggests that learning to use AI adds yet another layer to the tech overload. (Stressing about AI stealing your job if you don’t comply doesn’t help your mental state, either.)
Despite big societal and technological shifts, the most effective ways to assuage tech overload at work starts at the managerial level: Tam says leaders should “be mindful about what they ask their employees to do,” and make sure they offer the appropriate time and support to help get tasks done.
Tam also suggests “emotion-focused” coping, which entails “reinterpreting”—for example, framing the pressure to learn a new tech tool as a “challenge and opportunity.” That may sound easier said than done, so Daugherty suggests an approach that looks more like time management: Dedicate a set amount of time to each platform you use at work, silencing notifications from the other apps as you do.
With all the tech we’re inundated with, we often find “we’re really agitated” whenever “we tap into our nervous system,” Daugherty says. So “we need to have intentional times built in” to allow our bodies to reset to calm, like five minutes away from all the screens. Or you can build periodic 15-minute screen breaks into your day. Perry suggests, if you work in an office, taking breaks to circulate and connect with colleagues face-to-face. “Knowing that we are in a social world,” she says, “makes us feel a lot more natural.”
Some quick, physical tricks can also restore calm—even basic ones, like taking deep breaths, making sure to breathe longer out than in, says Daugherty. Relaxing our facial muscles, especially around our eyes, which we’re often unconsciously straining as we stare at screens, works, too, as does dragging your fingertips across your forehead (try it, seriously).
“They’re really simple things, but they’re very powerful,” Daugherty says, situating you in your body instead of inside your multiple devices.
It’s all about “resetting your system,” she adds. “Otherwise, it keeps revving and revving”—kind of like a phone that’s constantly on charge.