An interesting fact that alerts us to the relationship between health and the way we connect to the internet.

The low productivity of your collaborators may be originated in your internet connection.

It can happen just when you are about to send that important email that could not wait, just when you are running a process in the cloud that takes hours or just when you make a video call with an important client or a remote work session and the connection becomes your worst enemy.

But when your internet is slow or does not work properly there is not much to do, apart from getting angry and giving a cry of despair.

The reasons can be several: bandwidth is not enough because you do not have an exclusive connection, the poor performance of the equipment, weather conditions if you do not use fiber optics, among others. 

According to the report “State of Broadband in Latin America and the Caribbean”, prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America (CEPAL), Venezuela, Bolivia and Peru are the countries in the region where the internet works more slowly, But it is true that here in Costa Rica there is a tendency to poor internet service and especially in the business sector.

In some interesting data published by the BBC, the intention is to interpret the user’s reaction to these falls and constant breakdowns, since the internet has become part of their working environment and can cause frustration, anger or anguish as a result of these experiences.

This is certainly not a minor issue when we understand that it has such noticeable effects on our human body that they could lead to highly complicated situations.

Physiological effects

Neuropsychologist David Lewis has been studying the effects of slow internet on physical and mental health for some time.

And, for this, in his laboratory Lewis carried out an experiment:

He asked a group of volunteers to complete a series of forms, after slowing down – on purpose – their internet connection until it was “painfully slow.”

By monitoring variables such as heart rate and blood pressure, the scientists were able to measure “the physiological effects exactly,” he tells the BBC.

“As the volunteers despaired of not being able to download the file in the time needed to complete the documents, their heart rate and blood pressure increased, and so did their levels of physiological stress,” he says.

In fact, Lewis continues, “they manifested physical signs of anxiety and, very often, anger and enormous frustration.”

Various factors

Lewis says stress is “multifactorial.”

The specialist recalls that financial difficulties and other problems in private life cause “a lot of pressure”.

In addition, the slowness of the Internet connection can mean, in some cases, the loss of a client or leaving an unfinished job.

But the neuropsychologist considers it a “worrying” issue, since it can cause “very high levels of stress that are not good for health.”

The telecommunications company Ericsson also investigated the topic for the case of connection via cell phones, measuring parameters such as brain activity, eye movement or heart pulse.

In his “Mobility Report” this year, published last February, he says that when we experience a slow internet connection on our cell phone we experience the same feeling of horror as when we watch a scary movie.

Or the same levels of anxiety as when we have to solve a difficult mathematical equation.

According to the analysis carried out by the laboratory of the Swedish company -Ericsson ConsumerLab- when this happens, the heart rate increases, on an average level, by 38%.

And if what we are doing is watching a video and the connection is slow, stress levels go from 19% to 34%, the study concludes.

In other words, although the internet makes life easier for us in many ways, it can also complicate it enormously and this mainly occurs in the workplace, because if you consider a problem that your connection fails at home while you watch a movie, although the inconvenience is valid It will not be tragic at the end of the day, but in the business field not only can a problem of this type cost thousands of dollars, but it also causes unnecessary stress and generates a terrible organizational climate.

Some solutions are Fiber Optic in a definitive way and exclusive connections where bandwidth is not shared with other users, in addition to symmetrical and redundant services, which in the beginning promise much higher speed and stability.

We at Itellum have a high commitment not only to provide a first-world internet, but we can contribute to the overall feasibility of your company, so do not hesitate to write to us so we can provide advice without any commitment and you can know what is really happening with your internet provider.