Gen Z was born into a high-tech, high-networked world and has never known a time without the internet. In the US these digital natives spend an average of nine hours a day online. While technology enriches our lives, digital overload is thought to be a cause of stress and fatigue that also has adverse effects on the skin.

Shiseido conducted research focusing on digital fatigue that revealed excessive use of digital devices can not only cause mental and physical fatigue but can also change skin conditions, such as deterioration of skin barrier function, irregularity in corneocytes, and increased oxidative damage factor. It was also found that shikuwasa extract, indigenous Japanese citrus, enhances the expression of caspase-14, an important enzyme for skin barrier and moisturizing functions.

The study reproduced a state of digital fatigue through dual tasks that required subjects to simultaneously process a high amount of audiovisual information while observing the changes in the condition of the skin. The results showed that repetitive digital tasks not only increased physical and mental fatigue, they increased porphyrin, one of the factors in oxidative damage. In addition, the proportion of irregular corneocytes increased and skin barrier function also deteriorated, possibly resulting in rough skin.