PS5 outage: Levelling up digital anxiety

There is a lack of concluding evidence, linking video games and violent behaviours. However, there is enough confirmation available from our daily lives that technology makes us impatient. We all have experienced some kind of anxiety when technology failed to provide us a cab or food in minutes at our doorstep. Our anxiousness is justified because promoters of technology have always promised us a variety in no time. Their businesses run on our patience rather lack of it. 

Playstation users including children around the globe expressed their anger and abuse when the network witnessed a significant outage recently. The disruption that dragged on for more than 12 hours even led few gamers to demand compensation from Sony.  The worldwide digital anxiety was a result of their separation from technology. This might not have bothered me, but it did. My 9 years old was unable to play an age-appropriate Lego game on PS5 on Friday evening. Unable to understand, how to fix it, he grabbed my phone and asked Meta AI, how to contact PSN. His expedition with technology might have continued, if I would not have intervened. 

Technology affects those who possess it. A technological tool has no essence, but it does have existence. Its existence is determined by our own relation and interaction with it. This relationship in turn affects the impact. Digital anxiety as result of the relation with technology has the potential to drive extreme behaviours. Our children are living in an age of experimentation and their relationship with technology is even complex. The cognitive constructs, these popular platforms are intentionally designed with are problematic because they promote constant use. Sony could have mentioned a timeline on its PS networks, for it to be back online, however, it certainly did not, leaving the users to keep checking it. Playstation is certainly back but has somehow led the world to be less patient. To align the technologized world with children, the technologist must understand that elements of persistence within platforms must not dictate children. We must redesign technology, specifically for children, particularly to create personalities that are less anxious and are more trained to face uncertainties.

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