[woolion]

It's not only related to software. Any tool that "makes the task easier" will render the task harder in the long run. Modern agriculture got easier for farmers, until so much productivity became the expected norm that it became an extremely hard job. Communication technology made it easy to keep in contact with loved ones, but now jobs expect people to move very far as if it was nothing. Solving a problem through a technical solution only ups the ante.

I'm also interested in the research you mention, but I think it is a special case of this general human behaviour.

[frfl]

Your argument doesn't really hold.

The task did get easier in the short term and in the long term. The only thing that changed was the task itself.

Local job markets were the only practical thing for most people, but if you found a job somewhere else, you wrote a letter. Farming took dozens (or more?) of people per farm, now it's done by a small team if not a couple -- the task isn't to farm to provide a living or feed your family, it's to supply tons and tons of foodstuffs to a global economy.

Similarly, you can now call or video chat with your immediate family when they're at the store, while you're working from home -- or even if you're in an office 20 mins away. And if you wanted to run a small farm, you can now do that, providing for your family and maybe even generating a small income (see YouTube for homestead channels).

[drewcoo]

I think if the GP had framed it as "time-saving devices not only don't give us more time for relaxation, as promised, but end up giving us less" it would be closer to the truth.