1 OVERVIEW

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and the associated public health interventions undertaken to contain it have resulted in widespread and unprecedented social disruption. This collective trauma has resulted in school closures, shuttered businesses, rising unemployment and a spike in emotional distress resulting from the pandemic and related secondary stressors. Both domestically and internationally, governments have issued ‘stay‐at‐home’ orders that have mandated that children engage in online learning and non‐essential businesses either close or have employees work from home. As a result, during this collective trauma, we have seen a substantial rise in the use of technology, which is already integrated into the fabric of modern life. People are now spending even more time with technology while consuming news media, watching television, using social media to connect with others, utilizing lifestyle apps to shop for groceries and other consumer goods, and engaging in home workouts (Nielsen Global Media, 2020). Moreover, increased engagement with technology is required of students for educational purposes and for those now working from home.

Collective trauma are large‐scale negative events that impact the populace broadly (Hirschberger, 2018), with psychological effects associated with both direct and indirect (e.g., media‐based) exposure in prior epidemiological work (Holman, Garfin, & Silver, 2014). With respect to COVID‐19, many have experienced direct (e.g., been infected or known someone who was infected) and indirect (i.e., media‐based) exposure, as well as secondary stressors associated with the pandemic (e.g., job loss and reduced wages). Increased media exposure to collective trauma including COVID‐19 (Chao, Xue, Liu, Yang, & Hall, 2020) and previous public health crises (Thompson, Garfin, Holman, & Silver, 2017) has been associated with heightened psychological distress and impaired functioning over time (Garfin, Silver, & Holman, 2020). Yet media communications also provide a critical input that individuals rely on to evaluate risks and receive information (Glik, 2007), particularly during times of crisis (Ball‐Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976; Jung, 2017; Li, Yang, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019; Ranjit, Lachlan, Basaran, Snyder, & Houston, 2020). Moreover, while technology clearly has applications that can enable key components of our social, educational and occupational lives to continue during the COVID‐19 outbreak, prior research suggests these benefits (Decker et al., 2019; Haidt & Allen, 2020; Torous, Myrick, Rauseo‐Ricupero, & Firth, 2020) must be cautiously weighed against the potential for harm (Haidt & Allen, 2020; Primack et al., 2017; Shensa et al., 2017). What are the drawbacks of this increased utilization of technology? Keeping the risks in mind, how can we leverage technology to stay connected, engaged and healthy during this chronic collective trauma, which may continue for some time?

Online platforms are, by design, addictive (Alter, 2017). They encourage endless scrolling and do not have a clear ‘stop point’, which is why it is so common for people to spend many hours online or engaged with social media. The same phenomenon exists with online or YouTube news videos—one can follow links indefinitely without a clear, demarcated end. This may be particularly problematic as people seek out information to navigate the changing COVID‐19 landscape. In contrast, when reading a traditional newspaper one will, at some point, finish reading the paper, suggesting it is time to move on to a different activity. In addition to the social and occupational impairment that can result from any behavioural addiction, some research suggests that time spent on social media may be associated with increased anxiety, depression and other mental health ailments (Haidt & Allen, 2020). Early research on COVID‐19 media exposure documented this relationship: a study of 917 Chinese residents, assessed during the initial phase of the COVID‐19 outbreak, found that new media use (e.g., online news sites; pictures, videos, news or text updates on social media) was associated with negative psychological outcomes, while traditional media use (television, radio and newspapers) was not (Chao et al., 2020). This finding may also be explained by ‘emotional contagion’ that can occur as individuals interact via social media or due to lower quality of information (Resnyansky, 2014).

There may also be implications for physical and mental health with respect to work–life balance during the COVID‐19 outbreak, as time during stay‐at‐home orders may lack a clear transition between work/school and leisure. Prior review has suggested long working hours may be associated with increased anxiety, depression and cardiovascular disease, although meta‐analytic findings suggest small to negligible effect sizes (Ganster, Rosen, & Fisher, 2018), which are moderated by feelings of work engagement (Okazaki et al., 2019). Importantly, addiction to organizational technologies may have unintended consequences for personal and family life: a study of 241 organizational mobile email users found addiction to mobile email was associated with perceived work overload and technology–family conflict (Turel, Serenko, & Bontis, 2011).

While acknowledging these potential negative impacts, a mindful approach to utilizing technology may be an effective—and indeed essential—way to increase positive coping during the COVID‐19 pandemic and as we transition into a novel future. Indeed, prior research has indicated the motivation for using technology could be an important moderator with respect to whether technology has a positive or negative impact on mental health (Panova & Lleras, 2016), suggesting that mindfully and intentionally using technology while staying aware of potential deleterious effects could be beneficial during the pandemic and as restrictions slowly lift.