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The problem of stress has become a major issue in our time, yet our life conditions are less stressful than those of our ancestors. How often do we have to flee from a wild animal, or face constant physical threats from the environment as did early man in whom the stress response first emerged? The answer is never, or at worst most infrequently. Conditions in contemporary society are less stressful than those of previous generations. Our society does, however, face problems of stress, many of which are created by changes in technologically advanced societies. The demands that trigger the same 'fight or flight' mechanisms that enabled our ancestors to survive may no longer be appropriate to the modern age, yet nevertheless still exist. Technological progress needs some kind of working definition in order that a more meaningful discussion may arise. Here, technological progress will be defined as 'those changes which have been brought about in our society by the impact of the microchip, with particular regard to the computer'. These changes are seen throughout our everyday lives; in the supermarket, where bar codes are scanned by optical character readers (OCRs), the checkout operative may be placed under pressure to scan an increasingly large number of items in a shorter and shorter time as queues build at busy shopping times. This could of course place the operative under stress. Similarly, the shopper waiting to collect and pack purchases, may be placed in a situation of tension and stress as OCRs can generally scan faster than one person can pack. How often does one come away from a checkout in a store feeling exhausted, not from the physical work, but from the emotional demands of not wanting to delay anyone else in the queue? At quiet times the checkout operative may suffer from boredom stress in that there is nothing to do, but sit on guard duty over their technological emporium. Changes in many offices have involved the introduction of computerised systems, whereby each member of staff is linked to another through a network, thus removing the old-established face-to-face dealing.
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