Everywhere, things are moving faster.
Messages arrive instantly. Decisions are expected immediately. News refreshes before we finish reading the last headline. Productivity tools promise to save time, yet time feels more scarce than ever.
Acceleration has become normal. Exhaustion has become invisible.
A generation ago, speed was progress. Today, speed is pressure.
A young professional checks emails before getting out of bed. A parent listens to a meeting while making breakfast. A student scrolls through global crises between classes. None of this feels extreme anymore. It feels ordinary.
Yet according to the World Health Organization, anxiety and depression now cost the global economy an estimated one trillion dollars each year in lost productivity. This is not a personal failure. It is a systemic one.
We built systems that move faster than human capacity.
Acceleration rewards responsiveness, not reflection. It values output over recovery. Over time, this changes how people think, relate, and decide.
Research published by Harvard Business Review shows that burnout is less about individual resilience and more about environments designed without human limits in mind.
When rest feels like falling behind, wellbeing becomes a liability.
This cost is not evenly distributed.
Those with fewer resources absorb more shock. Gig workers live without predictable time. Young people grow up with constant comparison. Caregivers carry invisible labor. Meanwhile, institutions measure success in quarters, not in human sustainability.
The OECD links rising mental health challenges to declining job quality and increasing economic insecurity. Acceleration magnifies inequality.
Speed does not hit everyone equally.
What gets lost first is not productivity. It is meaning.
When life becomes a sequence of tasks, people stop asking why. Long-term thinking fades. Empathy thins. Trust weakens. Decision-making becomes reactive instead of thoughtful.
This is why constant acceleration is not just a wellbeing issue. It is a governance issue. It affects how societies vote, cooperate, and respond to crisis.
A tired society does not plan well.
Some systems are starting to notice.
Countries experimenting with shorter work weeks report improved wellbeing without productivity loss, as documented by
research on Iceland’s four-day workweek. Organizations redesigning work around focus, not speed, see stronger retention and performance.
These are not lifestyle choices. They are strategic adaptations.
The question is not whether acceleration will continue. It will.
The real question is whether societies learn to slow down selectively, deliberately, and humanely.
Because the true cost of constant acceleration is not measured in hours or output. It is measured in attention, trust, and the quiet erosion of our ability to live well together.
And that cost is already being paid.
