by Jessica James, YourPace Student Contributor
As school, work, and nearly every aspect of daily life move further online, Americans are facing an unexpected side effect of the digital age: exhaustion. What began as a convenience, the ability
to study, communicate, and work from anywhere has evolved into a nonstop stream of
notifications, expectations, and information that are increasingly difficult to escape.
According to the American Psychological Association, more than one-third of adults report that technology contributes to their daily stress levels, and younger adults feel the most pressure.
A 2023 Pew Research Center study found that 72% of U.S. adults feel they “need a break from their phone,” but only 24% say they actually take one. For students juggling online coursework
and for professionals tethered to work-related alerts, the digital load is becoming a significant
part of the burnout conversation.
Christie Williams, a graduate of the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s (UMPI) YourPace
program, has spent the past several years immersed in online learning, first as a student, and now as someone who informally guides others through their degree planning. Williams is active
across multiple platforms, from LinkedIn to Reddit, where she regularly helps new students navigate program requirements.
Williams said she has noticed a dramatic shift in how students learn and manage their workload, especially since the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital tools in both K-12 and higher
education. “Schools are going to have to meet students where they’re at,” she said. “And a lot of where they’re at is digital.”
Her perspective aligns with national trends: nearly 60% of U.S. college students now participate
in at least one online course, and competency-based education programs, like UMPI’s, continue
to grow. But that shift, Williams warned, comes with challenges.
One of the biggest stressors is the sheer number of platforms students must interact with. “It’s overwhelming, having so much information coming at you,” she said, noting that students may toggle between YouTube, academic articles, citation sites, messaging platforms, and university email and digital learning management systems just to complete a single assignment. Research from the Journal of College Student Retention shows that “platform fragmentation” is now a primary contributor to reported digital fatigue among adult learners.
Williams said that while online flexibility allows self-motivated students to thrive, it also leaves others behind. Students with high anxiety, learning disabilities, or limited digital literacy may struggle to navigate the constant stream of alerts, updated links, and shifting requirements. She added that many professors lack control over outdated course materials, leading to broken links and inconsistent resources that force students to hunt for new information on their own.
“When you just get a PDF of a textbook thrown at you, you’re like, ‘Okay, I guess I’ll be here all evening,’” Williams said. As a result, she often sees students “shortcutting” by skimming or searching only for the parts directly tied to their graded competency. “They’re not taking in all
the information; they’re just trying to keep up.”
The pressure to stay constantly reachable doesn’t stop after graduation. For many workers,
particularly those in public safety or healthcare, digital fatigue can be even more intense.
Liana Hurlburt, who works in emergency services and healthcare, said the expectation to be
reachable is unrelenting. “It’s constant,” she said. “There’s no downtime, really.”
Text messages, not social media, are her biggest source of pressure. With agencies sending
training updates, continuing education requirements, procedural changes, and emergency alerts,
stepping away from her phone is nearly impossible. “Everything has to be up to date,” she said.
“If you’re not constantly with it, it’s hard to go back through everything. There’s always
something going on.”
Her experience reflects a broader trend: a study from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that 83% of emergency service workers feel technology adds to their job stress, largely due to real-time communication demands.
Hurlburt said that while technology provides essential information, it often feels more exhausting than helpful. “It interferes with concentration sometimes,” she said. And like many Americans, she feels guilty when she can’t respond quickly enough. Research published in Nature Human Behaviour found that response-time expectations, even when unspoken, contribute significantly to anxiety in digital communication.
Experts say today’s burnout is less about technology itself and more about the pace it creates. In education, students no longer unplug when class ends; they carry the classroom in their pocket.
In the workplace, the traditional boundary between on-duty and off-duty has blurred, especially in fields that require rapid communication.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that screen time has doubled for adults since 2010, and college students now spend an estimated eight to 10 hours a day on school-related digital tasks alone. That constant engagement takes a toll: a Deloitte workplace survey found that 77% of professionals have experienced burnout at their current job, with digital overload cited as a key factor.
Despite the challenges, both Williams and Hurlburt believe the digital age isn’t inherently negative; it simply needs better structure.
Williams said clearer organization in online programs, updated materials, and the use of tools like podcasts or read-aloud features could reduce digital strain for students. She often converted her course readings into audio so she could learn while traveling for work. That flexibility, she said, is what makes digital learning powerful when done well.
Hurlburt, meanwhile, wishes for systems that streamline updates rather than require her to absorb information as it comes in. “If I could change one thing,” she said, “it would be having everything organized in a way where I didn’t have to catch it the moment it happens.”
Researchers say those kinds of solutions, consolidated platforms, reasonable response expectations, and intentional downtime, may be key to preventing long-term digital burnout.
As the digital age accelerates, the challenge for schools and employers is not simply to adopt new technology, but to balance convenience with human limits. Burnout, researchers note, emerges when expectations outpace capacity, something that becomes more likely when people are connected around the clock.
For now, the solution may lie in acknowledging that connection is not the same as availability, and access is not the same as balance. Technology may be here to stay, but so is the need to protect time, attention, and well-being.
