My sister was doing some research and came accross the “Computer Hassles Scale: A Measure of Computer Stress.”, a stress evaluation tool put together by Richard A. Hudiburg, who researches “technostress”. As someone who spends the majority of his waking hours interacting with a computer, I find the existence of such research to be comforting. Also, some of the criteria on this list are just hilarious (but totally valid). I emailed Dr. Hudiburg for permission to reproduce the scale on my blog, and he quickly responded saying it was fine, and attached rtf versions of the scale so I wouldn’t have to scan it.
I love the two introductory paragraphs. Yes, sometimes I do feel hassled by computers.
COMPUTER HASSLES SCALE
Directions: Computer technology hassles are irritants related to
experiences with computers and computer technology. These
irritants can range from minor annoyances to fairly major
problems. They can occur infrequently or fairly often.
Listed below are a number of ways in which a person can feel
hassled by computers and computer technology. Respond to each
hassle by circling a 0, 1, 2, or 3 to indicate how SEVERE the
hassle has been for you during the past TWO MONTHS.
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SEVERITY
0 - not at all
1 - somewhat severe
2 - moderately severe
3 - extremely severe
HASSLES
1. computer system is down
2. lost in the computer
3. poorly documented software
4. computer hardware failure
5. computer keyboard lockup
6. programming error
7. illegal input message
8. updated software requirements
9. poor user/computer interface
10. slow program speed
11. slow computer speed
12. poorly written computer documentation
13. incompatible software program
14. incomprehensible computer instructions
15. outdated computer skills
16. increased time demands
17. electrical surges - data are lost
18. lost data
19. lost program
20. crashed program
21. crashed system/ lockup
22. damaged storage media - disks, tapes
23. need to update skills
24. keyboard typing errors
25. need to learn new software
26. forgot to save work
27. keyboard paralysis
28. uninformative computer conversations
29. violent language of computers
30. too much computer information
31. too little computer information
32. software confusion
33. lack of help with a computer problem
34. lack of computer expertise
35. increased computer use expectations
36. lack of computer application software
37. obsolete computers
