It is no secret that the mental health of teenagers and young adults is declining at an alarming rate. People have their theories as to why we are at this all time low, but there really isn’t a single right answer – there are many reasons why.

 

Why?

Let us list some things that may be negatively influencing the minds of young people, then we shall explore them in more depth:

• Titanic Expectations
• Educational Failings
• Economical Imbalance
• Self-Consciousness
• Lack of Passion and Emotion

 

Titanic Expectations

The influence of media and entertainment on the psyche of today’s youth is incredibly powerful, all the while we are still trying to comprehend this twisted reality we live in and find our place within it. Now, media and entertainment is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and it is developing new and fantastical ways of showing us filtered or false realities.

What was your dream as a child? And what made you want to do that specific thing? When you were a young child I could confidently guess that your dream was influenced by a cinematic icon (such as Indiana Jones), or somebody you heard about through the news industry (such as Neil Armstrong), depending on how old you are.

Nowadays, we see examples across both social media and the news. We essentially idolise these celebrities and influencers. We see them as they are, successful and at their peak in life, but we miss the many steps they took to get to where they are today.

From a young age we are made to think that there is some kind of shortcut we can take to get where we want to be. When we fail at achieving these titanic expectations, we are quick to blame ourselves and self-destruct with bad coping strategies. Society should not fear failure, but embrace it as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Our fear of failure creates a negative attitude towards most areas of work because we think that any “mundane” task is useless, and that we need to accomplish ever larger feats to get to the throne of glory we picture in our heads. It gives us a sense of entitlement from a young age.

If only we were able to see that, if we start small, we can achieve big, and that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the words of the great philosopher, Plato, “Excellency is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act rightly because we are excellent. In fact, we achieve excellence because we act rightly.”.

 

 

Educational Failings

In schools there is a commonly held belief that some kids are naturally talented. This belief is toxic, because it causes teachers to praise kids for their intelligence and not for their hard work. People’s expectations of others are proven because they subconsciously make them so – a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For example, in 1968, there was an experiment conducted by social psychologists Rosenthal and Jacobson. The psychologists gave some teachers a list of a few students that apparently had high IQs (which wasn’t the case, they were chosen at random as part of the experiment), and when the teachers saw this list, they subconsciously treated the “gifted” kids as if they were special. This caused these kids to achieve much higher scores at the end of the experiment than the kids that were not marked as gifted.

Another issue that is present in the education system is something that some don’t see as an issue: the handing out of rewards in vain. In school competitions, kids who come last get medals and rewards for participation so they don’t feel left out, yet this causes the kids that tried exceptionally hard to accomplish their reward to feel as if their reward doesn’t mean anything.

It also causes the kids that got participation rewards to lose their motivation for future projects, because they think they will be fulfilled even if they don’t try as hard. So, since young adults grew up with this philosophy of entitlement, they don’t see the benefits of reaping what they sow.

There is also an extreme amount of subconscious discrimination among young students of the education system that causes some disabled students, or students of a different ethnicity or race to feel as though they won’t have as great a chance of success in this cruel world.

Students are also not taught some extremely important things that they almost certainly will need when they are young adults. If they were to learn useful subjects such as how to pay taxes and business skills in schools, they would have a much higher chance at success in their life and would also gain more self-confidence.

It would also be fruitful for students (pun absolutely intended), to learn more practical subjects like gardening and construction, so that if, for example, they grew up without suitable role models, they could learn things which may be expected of them in their future: it could teach them to create self-sustaining households if they desire.

 

Economical Imbalance

The economy of today requires you to rely on banks so that you may have a house or even a decent car. Just a few decades ago, a young adult could save up for a few years by working hard and eventually being able to buy their own house from what they have earned.

These days, the average wages compared to the cost of houses makes it almost impossible to buy your own house outright. Even with a mortgage, you need to prove your eligibility through a rigorous programme of interrogation and questioning. And with the likes of the pandemic affecting most businesses, young adults trying to get jobs are even more disadvantaged.

There is also a crippling influence that makes the youth think they have to work for others and not create their own enterprise. When people have such an incredible quantity and quality of imagination and ideas, their peak innovation is muffled by society telling them they have to be the wheels and not the driver.

It is understandable that every business needs labourers and workers, but when you have the industrial leviathans such as Amazon and Google, the workforce of society is funnelling into a state that would make Robin Hood vomit.

As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, we are on the road to an industrial apocalypse that could end with more people on the streets and more titans being corrupted by money and the treasures of their unethical gains. As the slavemaster cracks his whip, the slaves continue to survive in their bubbles of content suffering until a revolution happens.

But we can’t rely on our belief that another Abraham Lincoln will come along to rescue us. You may accuse me of being slightly intense, but I welcome those accusations with open arms, because what else will cause a change in society and a better future for our young adults, other than intensity of message?

 

 

Self-Consciousness

When young adults are flowering into physical maturity and adulthood, they are reaching the stage of their lives where they will most likely meet the people that they will know for the rest of their lives, maybe even a husband or wife. This is a cause for caution. It is natural to be careful about who you keep as company, and young adults think everything they say or do will affect how they are seen by everyone as well as caring about how they physically look to those same people.

When in the presence of peers, there is a sense of competition and jealousy. This causes people to say cruel things about others. The youth are highly affected by this, making it one of the causes of social anxiety. Social anxiety is a savage mental condition that makes you seperate yourself from society out of fear that you will be judged harshly – a psychological defense mechanism. This is also very dangerous when it comes to one’s self-image.

We spend a lot of time on social media and we compare ourselves to the false images that others publish on their profiles, thinking we aren’t as good as others because we see their profiles, carefully composed to make themselves look as perfect as possible because they themselves feel that their self-image needs to be improved. It is a vicious circle of negative self-image that can be conquered by honesty and people showing to society who they truly are, including their “imperfections” and “flaws”.

 

Lack of Passion and Emotion

When there is so much digital influence in this world, it is easy to get lost in the lack of warmth and passion in communication and business. We see most things through a screen, making our brains get used to the coldness of collaboration with the world, especially within the entertainment industry where every sequence of events is scripted by millionaires and projected through the mouths of other millionaires.

As much as it is nice to watch a good movie, people easily get lost in it and put it on the same level as reality. This false reality we see everyday conditions us to depreciate the potential of passion and emotion that is in our souls. As our souls shrink and wrinkle from fruitful grapes into tasteless sultanas, fewer things make us happy in real life and we go back to our flock of flashing lights to feel that temporary emotional sustenance.

If we all set aside a portion of our time to experience reality in it’s full and exciting glory, by travelling and making new memories full of adrenaline and adventure, we would regain our fruitful souls, filled with passion. That would bring back our lust for our dreams we lost when we were children. We could live the life of the characters we saw on our screens, if only we had the passion and the drive to continue through these small steps to our big successes.
I’m not saying nature or adventure is the only key to passion, but if you find the catalyst that would cause you to find your passion, you would never have regrets about wasting time.

Alas, the conclusion would be a fruitful society, and the wellbeing of future generations restored to colour once again!

 

 

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Consider how we can implement these teachings into our attempts to balance our work and our lives outside of it by reading this post, written by another GIS author.