To understand what mental health is we need to know the definition and to sum up what every source says, which when combined it follows the lines of:
A person's psychological, cognitive, behavioural and emotional wellbeing must be positive for good mental health.
From Oxford[2] & medical news today[1]
Emotional wellbeing is the main term used when defining a person’s mental state and several factors can contribute to a person’s emotional wellbeing.
These factors can include:
Self-esteem
Feeling-loved
Confidence
Family break-up or loss (domestic violence)
Health problems
Physical health
Abuse (childhood, trauma, neglect)
Social isolation (loneliness)
Disadvantages (Poverty, debt)
Stress
Job loss
Drugs or addictions
Bullying
All these external factors contribute to a person’s mental state. To ensure that a person can live a healthy life they need to have a good balance of both physical and mental health.
However, the main problem with the tech-savvy population is that even with the benefit of global communication and social media. As human beings, we still find a way to find/make problems. With these positive influences, negative ones can break out because of human nature which can impact the mental state of a person.
These could be in the form of:
Distraction
The expectation of instant gratification
Narcissism
Lack of social skills
Depression
Bullying
Stress
Sitting down too much (becomes a habit)
Apps such as the big 4, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, alongside others, have contributed to such terms as “Internet addiction disorder” [3, page 3], “compulsive Internet use” [3, page 3] and “pathological Internet use” [3, page 3]. These apps can cause depression which is brought about by users in social media showing their fake lives (making it more luxurious) which causes both parties to develop narcissistic characteristics. As well as making the user feel the need for instant gratification.
Technology has improved significantly over the last decade which includes faster internet connections and the ability to go on multiple apps at a time. This has caused people to have less patience, which can be seen in a study from UMAS Amherst. It found that amongst 6.7million users most would click off a video if it didn't load in 2 seconds. Another habit they found was the user only stayed on a web page to read one-quarter of the text before clicked off (Nielsen Norman Group) [4].
With all the negative impacts that technology has on a person’s mental health, there are always positives. Such as it gives every user a platform to grow personally or business-wise, grow confidence in socializing globally, the ability to have an online education and virtual doctors. The main advantage for people with mental health, apps were developed to keep track and assist them in their day to day lives.
Go to the resources page to see an extensive list of mental health apps.
References
[1] T. Newman, "Mental health: Definition, common disorders, and early signs", Medicalnewstoday.com, 2017. [Online]. Available: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/154543.php. [Accessed: 28- Feb- 2020].
[2]"Mental Health | Meaning of Mental Health by Lexico", Lexico Dictionaries | English, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.lexico.com/definition/mental_health. [Accessed: 28- Feb- 2020].
[3] E. Aboujaoude and V. Starcevic, "Mental Health in the Digital Age", ProQuest Ebook Central, 2015. [Online]. Available: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/aber/detail.action?docID=1969456. [Accessed: 27- Feb- 2020].
[4]"Health and Technology — Digital Responsibility", Digital Responsibility, 2020. [Online]. Available: http://www.digitalresponsibility.org/health-and-technology. [Accessed: 28- Feb- 2020].
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