So, it's been about
a year since the last blog post, this one has been sitting in my drafts on my
phone for about the same time, so thought it was time to publish!
I wrote in my last
post that my life now is very different from when I used to write a number of
years ago, and I alluded to thinking about things differently now, particularly
in the context of being a parent.
This particular post
is close to my heart for a number of reasons, one of which is my daughters.
Most things I think about now are about them; their futures, their education,
influences on their lives (like social media), etc...
I think back to what
life was like for me and us (as a generation) before social media; or should I
say social media as we now know it?
In an age where
social media is part of normal life, specifically Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Snapchat, etc...we forget that social media was available to us in different
forms when we were growing up, with probably similar consequences of use, I'm
thinking of Hi5, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Chat, etc..
Back in my younger
days using something like MSN was almost a direct replacement for talking to
someone on the phone I.e. You would have real time interaction with someone, by
conversing with them almost like speaking on the phone.
These days, although
Facebook Messenger and other forms of chat are available, we seem to interact
indirectly, for example, I can post a message on Facebook which some may
respond to by leaving a comment but not necessarily having a real time
interaction with them.
We as a generation
and society seem to have become so engrossed in posting pictures, usually of
how "amazing" our life is or the other extreme of how
"crap" life is. I've been as guilty as anyone of this in the past and
some would argue I still am (stop picking on me!). I guess it puts me in a good
position to ask "why do we need to post and tell the world what's going on
in our lives?", "did the world ask to be told about my day?",
"would it make a difference to the world if I was having the most amazing
time of my life?", I think you get the gist of where I'm going with this,
right?
We seem to have lost
our abilities to interact with others, in that, not many of us (I don't
believe) pick up the phone and say "hi (insert name), how's your day going
today?" Which used to provide a sense of realism, a sense of warmth that
someone is/was genuinely interested in my life.
Is it a coincidence
that we hear so much more about people suffering from mental health issues? No, I
don't think it is. When I thought about writing about this topic I searched
google for links between social media and poor mental health, and the majority
of results referred to "young people", and that's why I wanted to
write this post. I feel like the next generation will suffer from the adverse
effects of social media more so than this generation does. We seem
to be seeing the start of this already with online bullying, shaming, etc...
People will think
I'm a hypocrite for raising concerns around social media, particularly because
I'm a regular user of Facebook but that doesn't mean the questions I've asked
are any less relevant. If anything, I feel like I'm in a good place to bring it
up.
I mean, how many of
you log on to a social media platform as soon as you wake up? Or check your
phone to see what the latest updates are on whichever social media platforms
you use?
I do it most of the
time; wake up, check phone, and then do other things. You probably too!
Social media, no
matter how many connections, friends, and followers you have can be a very
lonely place.
This in turn can effect a person's mental health. Comparing someone else's perfect or amazing life to their own and developing a false picture can have more of a deeper adverse effect than people may realise.
This is all relevant to the Digital age we live in, and as things become more digitised, the situation gets worse. Why is life becoming more digitised? In my view it's because we want it to, we want things to make life easier for us regardless of the consequences.
My view on a
digitised world and mental health is that, as social media and the digital world
matures more, we need to better equip ourselves and our children particularly against
the pros and cons of it all. It's important I feel to ensure we can handle the
pressure of this evolving world, because if we don't we're going to see a lot
more cases of people with mental health issues.
I think I've waffled
on enough here, what do you guys think? Do you think the digital world is a
problem? Do you think there's an overreaction to the causes of social media on
mental health? What do you think we need to do to help the situation?
