Technophobia (fear of technology): causes, symptoms and treatment

Fear or aversion to technology can be an ideological position... or a disorder.

New technologies have burst into our lives with force, computers, tablets or smartphones allow us to be connected to the digital world 24 hours a day. This has caused our way of relating with others and with the environment and, in many cases, this has positively influenced our quality of life, because they facilitate greater access to information and provide us with new professional and leisure opportunities.

No one can doubt the benefits of new technologies; however, not everything is rosy, and experts have long been warning us of the risks of their misuse. Nomophobia, FOMO Syndrome or Technostress are some examples.

Today we will talk about another disorder associated with technological advances, it is the technophobia, which is characterized either by aversion or irrational fear of new technologies and the digital world.is characterized either by aversion or irrational fear of new technologies and the digital world..

What is technophobia

Technophobia is a complex concept, and there is not much research on the subject. On the one hand there seem to be different degrees, and according to one of the first researchers who studied the phenomenon for 30 years, Larry Rosen, a psychologist at the University of California, there seem to be three categories of technophobic subjects:

• Uncomfortable technophobesThese are people who have not mastered the new technologies, use them but are not comfortable doing so.
• Cognitive technophobicsCognitive technophobes: they use them but with fear, because they feel they are not fully trained.
• Anxious technophobicsis considered pathological and the person experiences an irrational fear towards the use of new technologies.

Therefore, the symptoms of technophobia range from feeling uncomfortable and insecure to the pathological extreme, that of feeling great anxiety when the person is in contact with new technologies.

This term appeared for the first time in the American psychiatrist Craig Brod's book "Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution", which was published in 1984. For the author, technostress is "a disease of adaptation that has its origin in the high ability to deal with new computer technologies in a healthy way".

Causes of this phenomenon

The causes of technophobia can be varied, as can its manifestations. In less serious cases, the origin can be found in the perception that the individual has when it comes to mastering technological devices, a special insecurity that prevents him from adapting to technological change. We could imagine, for example, the manager of a business who is unable to adapt to new technologies, because he thinks he will not be able to use them, even if it is of significant benefit to the smooth running of his company. Or the guy who does not want to upgrade his cell phone because he does not know how to use smartphones.

In fact, studies suggest that, from the age of 40, adults have greater difficulty in getting used to using computers and other technological gadgets, one of the causes, according to research, could be the fear of the unknown. That is to say, and as Rosa Farah, from the Center for Research in Psychology in Computer Science at PUC-SP (Sao Paulo) states, "it is not the technological devices that provoke fear, but to show their own inability to use the machine".

However, technophobia in extreme cases can be a phobic disorder and, therefore, can originate as a consequence of a past traumatic event, due to the process of conditioning event in the past, due to the classical conditioning process. Some experts also refer to this irrational fear as cyberphobia. Phobic disorders can also be learned by observation, by a phenomenon known as "vicarious conditioning".

Symptoms of fear of technology

As explained throughout the article, there are different manifestations of this phenomenon, so the intensity of the symptoms may vary from one individual to another. However**, the symptoms of technophobia are presented in front of the use of technological devices or everything that has to do with new technologies**, and the most characteristic are:

• Feelings of fear and, in extreme cases, panic.
• Anxiety and anguish.
• Palpitations.
• Restlessness.
• Sweating.
• Difficulty breathing and suffocation.
• Tremors.
• Lack of concentration.
• Avoidance of the feared stimulus.

Treatment of this phobia

Since the severity of the phenomenon can vary, this fear can often be overcome by training the individual in the handling of new technologies, encouraging him to take short courses and showing him that he can learn to handle the new technologies, which are so useful nowadays.

However, in serious cases, it is possible that psychological help may be necessary.. Psychotherapy is very effective as shown by many researches, and generally cognitive behavioral therapy is used, which employs different techniques.

For the treatment of phobias, the most commonly used are relaxation techniques and exposure techniques. However, the most commonly used is one that uses both: it is called systematic desensitization. With this type of treatment the patient learns different coping skills and exposes himself to the fear in a systematic and gradual way, that is, he confronts the feared stimulus while learning to control the physical and mental reactions that are characteristic of his phobia.

But this form of treatment is not the only one that has proven to be effective for this type of disorder; Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy are also useful.

Both belong to a group of behavioral psychotherapies called third generation.

• In our article "What are third generation therapies?" we explain them to you.

Types of phobias

Phobias are relatively frequent anxiety disorders, and a large part of the population suffers from them when faced with the presence of different stimuli: spiders, snakes, clowns, etc.

• If you want to know the different types of phobias that exist, you can visit our article "Types of phobias: exploring fear disorders".