TECHNOLOGY AND MENTAL HEALTH

 

Today, we live in a fast-paced world where there is lot of competition and peer pressure. We always feel that the world around us is running too fast, and we also necessarily need to catch up with them. As a result there is always stress building up in us, which even leads us to other illnesses like hypertension, depression, etc. This stress has been building up in people of all ages.

We have school children who are much stressed these days because of factors like tough curriculum, extended time at school, followed by tuition and pressure to over perform. Then we have teenagers who are stressed due to multiple circumstances like peer pressure, unhealthy competition, and career development, etc. We have working professionals who are stressed because of the daily travel to work, and then the tough work itself, financial pressure, and pressure to take care of one’s family. We have the retired people who are facing stress due to family pressure, financial pressure, etc.

Everywhere we look in this world today, we see people are completely stressed out. Today, the entire world is more stressed that ever because of a multitude of other reasons like inflation, economic woes, financial woes, wars, etc. Checking daily news headlines itself adds to our stress considerably All this leads to health disorders like depression, anxiety, burnout, binge eating, cravings, emotional eating, etc. Most people who are stressed these days resort to smoking & drinking to either forget bad experiences or cope up with extreme stress. In fact, our teenagers and young people resort to even drugs to escape stress and depression.

Added to all this, today we have a world that is moving superfast technologically as well. Everything is virtually possibly today. We can order food, groceries and even do payments online. Are mobile touch screen devices are quite large so much so, that even a television has become out-dated. Then we have multiple kinds of social media too, which keeps the world hooked to online interactions. This situation sharply worsened especially in the COVID times.

So, in spite of all the ease of life that technology provides us, there is a huge downside to overuse of this. Even when we are financially secure and living a comfortable life, life still looks very stressful. And this has resulted in many millions suffering with anxiety, depression, burnout and numerous other mental issues. Though diseases like obesity, hypertension, thyroid, PCOD, diabetes are some of the most common lifestyle disorders today, its mental health crises or mental disorder is biggest problem facing humanity today.

When we discuss about health, mental health is one of the most important side of it. Everything in our lives start with our mind - all the sicknesses, the stress & tension, physical ailments, our intellect, productivity, achievements, contentment and also our lifestyle. Again the advancement of technology is the major culprit that has accelerated stressful conditions and mental disorders among most of us or even all of us.

The problem with social media is that almost everyone gets hooked to it. There are many eye and mind captivating videos and messages. Everyone wants to see and hear all of that. People constantly enter other’s accounts and check their status, photos, videos and friends list. All that they see depresses them. They start comparing themselves to others & start feeling low. They see their numerous likes, followers and comments, and then get disheartened.

One thing about our generation is, they like to show off a lot. There are people who like to show themselves in a variety of apparel and then they want the likes of people. They want appreciation. That gives them an artificial boost. They never mentions about their sad and bad times. They only show off the places they visited, their numerous friends and so on and so forth. Many of the things there may not even be true. Everyone only likes to show their good side.

Probably, these people started doing this, because they learnt it from some other of their social media friends. These days too many people are trying to sell their short reels and YouTube videos online. And with increased earning potential, everyone wants to try all this stuff. People have become desperate. And a result people spend more time on social media or online than thinking about the best diet or involving in some physical experiences.

All this comparison and stress has created wrecked complete havoc of one’s mental health. As a result the number of suicide case and broken marriages has been on the rise. Hence, social media and technology has been more of a bane than a boon. All these social media and technology companies wanted to make a lot of money at the expense of people’s mental health. Today we have several millions suffering due to all of this.

Those, who are completely drenched in social media, are not realizing how much it’s affecting their mental health. How much they cannot leave without social media and their mobile handsets anymore. They have millions of followers but they are not realizing, that their mental health is been severely impacted.

Also people have become more interconnected online than offline. This case has been on the rise ever since the COVID Pandemic. With most companies functioning online even today, there is very few face to face interactions between people. Most people prefer to connect online with their friends than visit their homes.

So, let’s not get carried away or get bogged down by all that we see in social media. I would rather say, one should practise staying away from their mobile handsets. This is very important as apart from social media that are numerous other things in a mobile handset that can permanently destroy a person mentally, emotionally & psychologically. Understand that there are numerous other things like news headlines, songs, videos, etc. only to name a very few that deeply affect people’s lives and even drive them to despair and suicide.

If we truly want to live and manage a healthy lifestyle, we must focus on a set of things in our life and lifestyle. This we should not just follow for just a few months, but in our everyday lives. Listed below are a few things that we can start doing for improving our mental health.

● Stay away from social media as much as possible. Stay away from your mobile handsets as much as possible. Use our handsets only for basic calling & messaging purpose

● We could involve ourselves in a basic daily exercise like walking especially morning before going for work. This is very useful in increasing blood circulation and over all confidence. We could also try and hit the gym once in a while, this gives lot of confidence. We could also try other exercises like swimming, cycling, and jogging, etc. Even playing other outdoor sports like cricket, football, and basketball, etc. once in a while can be very useful.

● And of course we should have a proper healthy diet and fitness programme, which would definitely help in the overall physical and mental development of a person.

This changed lifestyle will help us greatly in our day to day lives. It will reduce our stress levels (the cortisol and all other stress hormone levels) would reduce significantly. This would help us to look and feel better. We start to eat healthy, our skin texture improves and we start to lose weight. And this leads to a promising and healthy lifestyle.

- by James J.