By: Reagan Warner
As of today, I believe there is a pandemic that plagues our generation of humanity. This involves a drastic increase of mental health decline, an issue that has ultimately been contributed to by what some argue as one of the best revolutionary inventions of mankind: technology. Technology is undoubtedly revolutionary and allows people to create social connectedness through multiple platforms on social media. However, some people fail to realize that this is a recipe to put oneself at high risk for poor mental health, as shown by research. I firmly believe that technology creates a huge risk for unwanted mental health issues, especially amongst teens, and if we were to reduce our screen time and internet exposure, our risk for these issues would lower.
Poor mental health has been a hot topic since the late nineteenth century, and through psychological discoveries, there have since been ways found to treat such issues and keep them under control for a period of time. Though, in our era of social media and technology, there is a grave problem: there is an exponential spike of depression or the encouragement of promoting narcissistic behavior.
On the other hand, some people disagree. Sydnee Warner, recent Bonneville High School graduate said, “I would disagree that our current era of teenagers suffer from depression at the hands of technology, and more so pinpoint this on an entirely new generation of abuse via parental figures and peers.”
While I understand and partially agree with Warner’s opinion that outside factors are the true issue; I believe that people feed into the attention they get via social media and become obsessed therefore promoting narcissism. When said people lose the attention, it affects the way they view themselves as a person, mostly based on looks. We cannot deny that social media supplies opportunities for people to feel bad about themselves.
Some would argue that social media does not create mental illnesses, such as depression, among teens. Preston Pyke, recent Bonneville High School graduate, stated his opinion on the correlation between mental health decline in teens and their use of technology. Pyke said, “Not necessarily the use of technology, but the world that it is based around. The lies and fake people that are fueled by others, and the envy, jealousy, and hatred the human condition lives for.” This is again an instance where I agree somewhat.
Although, we cannot outright say that technology does not have any correlation between mental health. “Prolonged use of social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, may be related to symptoms and signs of depression,” said Igor Pantic MD, Ph.D. This relation of symptoms to social media platforms does show a correlation between the two ideas of mental health decline and technology.
It is also important to discuss how social media can create inadequacies about life, appearance, fear of missing out, and isolation. Such primary issues are the many facets of the issue as to why mental health decline is so prevalent as a result of technology. People can mitigate such obstacles by reducing screen time. A 2018 study done by the University of Pennsylvania found that reducing social media use by thirty minutes a day can lower levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and sleep problems.
Furthermore, I believe that reducing online time can also prevent the issue of mental health decline overall. Taking on other activities and hobbies to get yourself off of your devices can prove to limit negative mental effects. “Through many experiences like camping or other isolating activities, reducing time online with the right circumstances can help reduce stress in many ways,” said Pryce Terry, recent Bonneville High School graduate. “You aren’t worrying about how many likes your post got or if someone said something mean about your sense of humor, you’re able to have time to yourself and reflect on what is important. Technology is great and using it has many benefits, overusing it is the exact opposite.”
In addition to this, through research, findings have found that “Walking has been proven effective in reducing anxiety and depression, and there is further evidence that walking in nature improves those results even further,” said Nate Sowa, MD, Ph.D.
All in all, humanity’s mental health decline is a contagious disease that has contaminated our generation with the creation of technology leading up to social media. Although some may argue that social media does not spark desolation, there are numerous amounts of research that support the idea of prolonged social networking usage being capable of increasing the risk.
In addition, social media can create a variety of issues that lower self-esteem. I believe that if the world took initiative to reduce screen time and spend more time outside, there would be a clear improvement in mental health, and rates of mental illness would most likely go down. We, as people, need to take responsibility for our actions and the way we take care of ourselves, and this is one way to start doing that.
