Tech Spa – Relax And The City

Sarah Helfgott, a college journalism student and intern in the public relations department here at Intel, has been working with us on a project about technology and stress that Intel has been involved with. Because she’s an active blogger in her free time, we asked her to join us at an event in New York to so that she can cover it on the Intel Inside Scoop. Below is a guest post from Sarah, recapping the event.

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Last Thursday morning, Intel hosted an event in New York City called ‘Tech Spa’ to draw attention to a topic that Intel is very interested in, the discussion of technology and stress. The event’s location (a beautiful hotel with a stunning view of the city), spa treatment amenities (massages, etc.) and delicious food complemented the topic of stress reduction nicely. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on the campaign behind this event and to attend, get a massage myself, and learn a little more about stress and technology – namely the new 2010 Intel Core processor family.

What made Tech Spa different than typical technology events was its goal of sparking discussion. A panel of three speakers – Intel clinical psychologist and health researcher Margie Morris, Intel director of consumer PC marketing Karen Regis, and external psychology expert Cooper Lawrence – kicked off the conversation with brief overviews on their own research and insights on the topic. After the speakers, the topic was placed on the table for open discussion and the room buzzed with questions and comments from the New York-based media.

The inspiration for this discussion of technology and stress came from a July technology study commissioned by Intel and conducted by Harris Interactive that found that eight out of 10 (80 percent) of U.S. adults get frustrated when waiting for technology to keep up with them, and about half (51 percent) have done something out of character when experiencing this frustration, such as cursing or hitting their computers. In addition, the study found that on average, people spend a total of three days every year waiting for technology to keep up with them, which leads to intense frustration. As it turns out, people aren’t themselves when they’re frustrated, and as the panel of experts pointed out, waiting can actually cause intense stress.

Intel is interested in the impact technology can have on people. Intel social scientists have actually studied how to use technology to reduce stress. The company also developed a new line of processors - the brains inside a computer - that can help reduce stress by helping to reduce the amount of time people wait for their technology to work. The Intel Core family of processors is the result of extensive efforts to develop smarter processors that know when people need their computers to work faster and then conserve energy when they don’t.

As Cooper Lawrence from the panel pointed out, a study conducted by the University of Vienna discovered that one of the best cures for stress caused by slow, outdated technology is to get faster technology. People are using their computers for much more advanced things than they were three years ago and older processors don’t provide support for the kind of content creation and content viewing (watching videos, uploading and editing pictures, social media, gaming) that people are doing on a daily basis now.

The event was a relaxing and educational way to spend my morning.

If you’re interested in the discussion of technology and stress, you can follow the series of blog posts that the Intel Inside Scoop has been publishing from social scientists on this topic. Feel free to listen and participate in the discussion.  A new online game was also unveiled at the event with a fun take on how the Intel Core processors diminish the hourglass spinning on PCs.  See if you can achieve the highest score! 

We’d love to hear from you about how technology and stress affects your life.

-Sarah