'Technology Saps Your Ability To Have A Positive Life' Says Stig

15 January 2017, 17:35 | Updated: 15 January 2017, 17:37

Stig Abell On Technology

Stig Abell thinks technology is having a "devastating effect" on our mental health.

French workers have won the right to ignore business emails which arrive after hours, and on his show this afternoon Stig Abell asked if the UK should be following suit. 

The LBC presenter said he believes that technology can have a "devastating effect" on mental health. 

Stig said: "Here's the thing I think about technology. We're in the middle of an experiment. A giant social experiment conducted in real time in which the division between work and private life is disappearing. 

"And I think the consequences for our mental health, our physical health, are devastating.

"How many times do you find yourself sitting at home checking your emails, thinking about work, not paying attention to your family? I call it E-glect. 

"When you should be looking after your kids but you're ferreting about on your phone because you've got an email. You know someone might have emailed you, someone might have got in touch." 

Stig continued: "I think it's getting worse. I started work in 2001. Ten years before, office life was massively different. If you left work, you had no mobile phone to bother you, no email account to follow you.

"If you were at home you were left in peace. If you were in a restaurant you were left in peace. If you were on holiday, you were actually on holiday. Can anyone say that's their life now? 

"Does technology not begin to rob you, sap you, sap your ability to have a positive life experience?"