Sports technology: are you a victim of technostress?

What they did

Using data gained from workplace studies, the researchers determined the sources of stress that can arise from the use of digital technology. These are shown in table 1 below. Of these, certain stress factors are also potentially relevant to athletes. In the table, these are shown in CAPS.

Table 1: Stress factors known to arise from digital technology in the workplace*

*table adapted from Werner et al⁽⁷⁾

Having done this, the researchers then combed the literature for documented negative effects that can arise when athletes use self-tracking technologies. The (extensive) list of key effects they arrived at was as follows (see the scientists’ published study for a comprehensive list and source references):

·        Reduced enjoyment of movement and the environment.

·        Loss of intuitive body awareness of the signs of health and illness or devaluation of one’s own subjectivity and inwardness.

·        Perception of being dominated or controlled by numbers.

·        Emotional stress as a result of a feeling of pressure from continuous activity.

·        Frustration caused, for example, by a different experience between the data obtained and personal perception.

·        Development of a dependency on self-tracking technologies.

·        Negative emotions resulting from the interpretation of individual performance data. Emotions can range from joy and pride to anger, shame and guilt.

·        Mobilization through special application offers, such as memory functions and performance comparisons as well as an increase in social control over (sports) behaviour.

·        Sports addiction, which expresses itself in an excessive urge to exercise.

·        Transformation of sports practices through the inclusion of self-tracking technologies, towards digitally measurable activities.

·        Virtualization of interpersonal relationships leading to reduced human interaction, as people connected through digital self-tracking technologies rather than training together - eg by establishing digital sports-related competitive relationships through the publication of personal performance data on digital (sports) platforms.

In the second part of the study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with amateur, competitive triathletes who used digital tracking technology. The purpose was to try and verify which of the above findings in the literature were particularly relevant to actual practicing athletes as determined by athletes themselves – ie not by researchers drawing conclusions from previous data. A total of over 17 hours of audio material from qualitative interviews with 13 athletes was analyzed. The average duration of the interviews was 80 minutes, and all recorded interviews were converted into writing using speech recognition software. The transcripts were processed using content analysis software, and the transactional stress model was applied to categorize responses into primary and secondary appraisals of technostress.

What they found

When the information from the athletes’ interviews was coded and analyzed, there were a total of 16 stress factors that emerged as a result of using digital technology, eight of which - information overload, distraction, unavailability, loss of control, lack of sense of achievement, unreliability, complexity and self-monitoring - were already known from the workplace context but were now being observed in the sports context. In addition, eight new stress factors specific to performance-oriented amateur sport were identified. These were:

·        Performance enhancement imperative - the pressure or expectation to constantly improve personal performance or achieve certain goals that are monitored through the use of tracking devices.

·        Lack of context - because devices only record objective data and take no account of personal, subjective circumstances (such as illness, menstrual cycles, lack of time), which in real life are often legitimate factors for a drop in performance.

·        Digital visibility - pressure caused by the disclosure of personal data and activities on platforms such as Strava, where profiles and usage data are automatically transformed into diagrams and analyses, and can be viewed by others.

·        Feedback incorporation – describes the tendency of athletes to accept feedback and performance assessments of their tracking devices as authoritative assessments of performance, rather than athletes taking a more rounded view of their performance.

·        Measurement data fixation - where athletes allow their intensities during training or competition to be strongly influenced by the technical data of their tracking device – eg achieving best times on certain kilometre sections – leading to an excessive focus on the technical aspects of training while ignoring the perceptions of the athlete’s subjective feelings of performance and health, which can lead to problems down the line.

·        Comparison pressure - perceived requirement to always compete with other athletes and surpass their performance, which means athletes can lose sight of their own long-term goals, instead experiencing a negative feelings, including envy, resentment and jealousy, especially in those with low levels of self-

·        Permanent monitoring - a feeling of pressure to constantly self-evaluate and monitor, which worsens when athletes cannot train as desired. Many athletes only notice this pressure when they take off the gadget and then often report a feeling of liberation!

·        Perception discrepancy - stress that occurs when an athlete’s own assessment of their performance, health or state of mind does not match the data recorded by technological aids. This discrepancy creates uncertainty and conflict when athletes have to question their own feelings and perceptions.

Implications for athletes

This is a fascinating study because although the findings come from a particular section of the athletic community (amateur competitive triathletes), there’s no reason to believe that many athletes who use digital tracking technology won’t also experience similar emotions at times. While there’s no denying the potential benefits of digital tracking technology, what this study does is to flesh out and clarify some of the significant downsides, which appear not to be limited just to information overload in the short term. Indeed, for some athletes, these downsides could have a serious negative impact on longer-term motivation, enjoyment and health, as well as performance.

A key point to bear in mind is that according to the transactional model of stress, the same information can lead to very different perceptions in different people, depending on how they perceive that info/situation. This means that each athlete’s interaction with digital technology will be unique, and vary according to a wide range of factors. However, simply being aware of the potential stresses that digital technology can create gives you a big advantage.

If you’re a heavy digital tech user, you should go through the list above and make a note of all the factors above that you have personally experienced when using digital tech. If you can relate to any of these, you might need to seriously rethink when and how often you use digital tech. For example, do you need to use it for every training session? Is there any real need during an easy/recovery session? Do you need to use it to monitor yourself on days off? Do you spend hours and hour analyzing data from workouts without being to discern what it means for future training sessions? Are you ignoring your own subjective feelings (incredibly important) because you believe the figures in front of you are gospel? Do you ever feel down when your session data shows a slower time, even though you know that you feel tired? Does every training session turn into a race with yourself or with someone else online? Do you ever miss going out training and just enjoying being surrounded by Nature and knowing your body is fit and healthy.

By answering these questions honestly, you can alter the way you use digital tech so that it does not become an end in itself but instead works for you. This might involve only using certain elements of it, only using it during key workouts, having periods when you don’t use it at all, or switching to more subjective ways of monitoring your performance – eg through breathing patterns and perceived exertion (which data shows can be very effective – see this article). In short, by making digital technology your slave and not becoming a slave to it, you can expect to enjoy happier, healthier and more productive training!

References

1.       Front Physiol. 2016 Aug 10;7:348. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00348. eCollection 2016

2.       J Sci Med Sport. 2020 Aug;23(8):758-763

3.       Front Psychol. 2020 Dec 23;11:608426. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.608426. eCollection 2020

4.       McCann R. S., Johnston J. C. (1989). The locus of processing bottlenecks in the overlapping tasks paradigm. Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomics Society Atlanta, GA

5.       J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform 1984. 10:358. 10.1037/0096-1523

6.       Technostress. Technological antecedents and implications. MIS Q. (2011) 35(4):831–58

7.       Front Sports Act Living. 2024 Nov 18;6:1465515

8.       Lazarus R, Folkman S. Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York, NY: Springer; (1984)