The Relationship between IT Consumption and Stress in Pakistani Youth Sehrish Mobeen ? & Bushra Mussawar ? Abstract-Information technology is surprisingly influenced our daily routines; but side by side it also generate many questions on the health issues. Inconsistent and uneven IT utilization is very significantly related to many psychological problems including the issues of stress as well. Though in Pakistani culture concerns related to IT were not counted into serious considerations, the following study was aimed to investigate the association between IT consumption and stress among the Pakistani youth. 200 participants age ranged between16-24 has been conveniently selected from 4 different cities of Pakistan. A demographic information questionnaire and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) was used for data collection. Hypothesis of the study was that high use of IT will lead to higher stress level in Pakistani youth. The results of the study also support the hypothesis significantly and previous literature also incorporates with the existing results. I. # Introduction ince centuries IT has been questioned about its pros and cons. Although this revolution civilized the humans by making their lives smooth and simple, as today performing the duties with the help of IT is very convenient. But beside these entire benefits one cannot ignore its negativity, as its repetitive use also building an imprisoned concept and manner in humans. No doubt IT benefited its users with a multiple confirmatory guidance, but on the other hand there are still many areas which are badly affected with the uneven exercise of IT. A lot of literature point out the negative face of IT. Every day constant modification and innovations in IT is persistently affecting the concepts of mutual sharing, gatherings, social settings, collaborations and interactions. It is widely believed by many researchers that in the list of reasons which created many social issues IT are among one of them (Hacker & Barden, 1987). Innovations especially in the field of IT diverted or mold a person's ordinary life into complexities by continuous interference, as this also lead towards the alteration of a person belief system as well as his thinking patterns. The discoveries which were created to make an individual's existence easy now added up a component of stress. A huge heap of faxes emails and voice mails really create an irritation and frustration; infuriating ringing of mobile phones. A phenomenon of Techno stress is also an optional term for a condition of cognition and cortical arousal observed in individuals who heavily depend on IT for the accomplishment of their duties and assigned tasks. It is strongly believed by the researchers that in job places psychosomatic syndrome prominently increased in future, because of the rapid innovations and present inconsistent IT usage (Arnets & Wiholm, 1997). In the last few decades the exaggerated utilization of modern technology is noticeably observed approximately in all areas of life. Un able to use and utilize modern technology by old people like mobile phones, computers, and internet convey meaning and perception in them that they are no more competent and cannot play their role purposefully (Czaja & Lee, 2007). IT wrath or issues of temperaments related to technology (Fiehn, 2010) were prominent when an individual come to know or develop the understanding of unskilled or incompetent to deal out or tackle with the demands of advanced technology. As a result person is being enforced to expand his/her time duration and attempt in order to conceptualize the complexities connected with the utilization of upcoming novel and innovative technology .These factors will lead towards the state of irritation and disturbance and a fear of losing a job because of lack of knowledge of daily modifying technology and the end result person will develop stress and anxiety (Arnetz & Wiholm, 1997) Relation between stress and information technology didn't give much attention in literature. This existing study, was therefore was intended to design in order to find out a relationship among IT expenditure and stress in Pakistani youth. The hypothesis of the study was that high IT utilization would be significantly related to stress in Pakistani youth. # II. # Method In this existing study, IT utilization was operationally defined as the total minutes spent per day for using internet and making phone calls or text messages. # a) Participants From 4 different cities of Pakistan i.e. Islamabad, Peshawar, Jhelum and Rawalpindi data of 200 was gathered and the age rage was 16-24. Convenient sampling technique was used. # b) Instruments ? Demographic Information Questionnaire Demographic questionnaire incorporated the information about the age and time period of IT utilization from the participants. ? Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) DASS, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, was used to measure level of anxiety and stress among the participants. The subscales of anxiety and stress will be used only, excluding the subscale of depression. Each subscale has 14 items, exhibiting negative emotional signs and every item is rated on four point Likert scale. The score range from 0=did not apply to me at all, to 3=apply to me most of the time. It is instructed that there is no wrong response. Level of anxiety ranges from mild to severe, based on the total score obtained. Similarly levels of stress also range from mild to severe which is based on the total score obtained on stress subscale. # c) Procedure Various academic institutes were visited by the researcher situated in various cities of Pakistan that were chose conveniently for collecting the data. Issues of confidentially and ethical standards were given proper consideration. Statistical Package (SPSS) was used for analyzing the data. # III. Results IV. # Discussion The current research's major concern was to discover the relationship among the IT usage and stress in Pakistani youth. It was hypothesized that higher practice of information technology would be significantly related to stress. Results are positively reliable with the hypothesis. Because of brutal and precise experience of IT several psychological issues are dominantly associated with it (Aronsson, Dallner & Åborg, 1994;Nakazawa, et al. 2002;Korpinen & Pääkkönen, 2009).One of the key feature of information technology that is internet become a compulsory need of the youth and has been use for numerous factors. But beside the benefits it also brings higher rate of stress in its users. Although it provides the opportunity to its users to communicate and expand their time with each other; but it also create the risks of fear and stress in its users (Mishna et al., 2012).Mostly individuals assumed that IT facilitate them in order to overcome their work and relax them physically and mentally but in reality, information technology has maximized their mental fatigue and side by side also destabilized their social setup (Sharma 1999). Dependency related to IT in which top of the list is internet is increasing day by day. When explored this dependency, it observes that people adopt this dependency in order to reduce their mental and emotional fatigue. People might sense and experience emotional disturbance because of interventions in socializations. In order to overcome this tension person may directed and viewed modern technology as consistent supply of comfort and relax (Selye, 1975). Stress is prominently a degenerative factor. As this excite the person and can arouse strong cravings to use again and again and get addicted with it. And efforts to discontinue the use provoke more stress (Howard, 1996). This study will help the Youth in understanding the hazards of excessive use of information technology. 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