Data Beyond Technology: Toward a Conceptualization of Datastress

As digitalization accelerates, data has become central to how work is conducted across professions. Employees now engage with continuous streams of data to fulfill core responsibilities. Yet the pace, volume, and variability of data introduce strains not fully captured by existing models of technostress. This paper introduces datastress as a distinct but complementary concept from technostress, capturing the contextual, relational and systemic stress that arise from data work. Drawing on cognitive load theory and research on the specific nature of data, we identify working-memory drain, trust erosion, and moral tension as three resulting strains from datastress. We use two thought experiments drawn from emergency care and algorithmic food delivery to clarify the analytical boundaries between technostress and datastress. The model advances IS research on digital work by relocating the focal stressor from the screen to the data stream.