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(03/16/16 8:28pm)
Have you ever asked a friend to take down a picture on Facebook because you think it’s unflattering or embarrassing? Have you ever spent a lot of time crafting the perfect caption? Have you ever friended someone but then felt too awkward to say hi when you saw them in person?
Everyone has a different social media presence, but almost no one is completely genuine in creating a profile. Facebook has become a form of personal advertisement to boost social capital. It is not about just creating connections with people: it’s about crafting an image. This might be stating the obvious, but it’s also stating a fact that is not openly acknowledged. In my opinion, this lack of authenticity is the core problem with our social media usage (and quite frankly with our real life relationships as well). People are afraid to be genuine on Facebook because it is so public. More often than not, people’s networks include “friends” that they barely even know. On top of that, we all have been warned of the ominous “colleges and companies look at your Facebook profile when they are deciding about whether or not to accept you.” This is what results in people deleting their Facebook accounts, or that feeling of anxiety you get after posting pictures or comparing yourself to other people you find yourself stalking.
The issue with Facebook is that there is no universally accepted purpose for it. Linkedin is used to create professional connections with people. Email is used to keep in direct contact with individuals. With Facebook, the jury is still out. It may have started as a platform to connect with others, but it has strayed from that original purpose.
Columbia University did a study that affirmed what you may have already suspected: the way you use Facebook completely determines how it affects your mood. If you are actively engaged and post frequently, you are more likely to get self-confidence and positivity from the responses and affirmation you receive. If you passively scroll through your newsfeed and lament that you are not doing as many cool things as that one acquaintance traveling abroad, you are going to be unhappier through Facebook usage. But here’s where it gets interesting: a study done by the University of California San Diego showed that emotions can spread like wildfire through your social media network. The mood of your posts on Facebook has a ripple effect on the mood of all active people in your network. Your Facebook presence is influencing the happiness (or unhappiness) of other people you know. Clearly, social media can affect your happiness, and so we need to be more intentional about how we use it.
I see the lack of authenticity on Facebook as a problem that is hindering our ability to have meaningful relationships, and in the long run hindering our well-being. I have a challenge for you (and for myself): be more genuine on Facebook, and take the activity of others with a grain of salt. Don’t spend time crafting an image for yourself. Don’t worry about whether or not to post something. Find a way to be authentic in whatever way works best for you.
(03/02/16 9:09pm)
Brains are funny things. We wander around the world with brains inside of our heads. They dictate who we are, how we are and what we do. And — on top of it all — they are so unbelievably sensitive.
Ever since the day we were born, our brains have been sponges. The most absorbant kind of sponge you can imagine. With each new experience, the brain absorbs information, educating us about how to live. Naturally, the timeline of this absorption of information has many effects on our behavior.
Contrary to popular belief, between 18 and 24 years old, our brains are still incredibly absorbant sponges. Brains are not done developing until at least the age of 25. I don’t know about you, but for me, this completely shattered the feeling that I had truly reached adulthood. Our brains are still babies — incompletely developed, relatively inexperienced sponges.
Studies at Dartmouth College, University of Alberta, Newcastle University and Temple University have revealed some other interesting tidbits about the brain at our age:
Compared to older individuals, college students’ brains are less developed in the areas that integrate emotions and cognition (the insula, caudate and cingulate regions).
Younger individuals are more prone to making rash decisions because their reward systems are over-sensitive compared to older individuals.
The frontal lobe, the area of the brain that dictates impulse control, among other things, is one of the last areas of the brain to fully develop.
Girls’ brains usually mature two years faster than boys’ brains during the teenage years (sorry, boys).
There are some neural consequences of this brain development that help explain the prevalence of mental health issues at this age. Basically, the brain is constantly shifting and shaping throughout life. Neurons, the things in your brain that communicate and allow you to function, are like connecting vines. As you gain experience and grow older, they grow and prune themselves in order to make the most efficient, useful connections possible. Our brains continue this process much later into life than scientists originally hypothesized. Although some areas of the brain — like the hippocampus, which controls memory — will change throughout life, most areas finish this process of shifting and shaping around the age of 25.
Between 18 and 24, our prefrontal cortices are not fully developed. This cortex is like the boss of the brain. It is responsible for planning, problem-solving and other “higher order” functions. It turns out that planning and stepwise problem-solving skills are associated with resilience. Resilience — known as the ability to bounce back after difficulty — is a skill that is very important when it comes to mental health.
Let’s think back to my article last week. There are astoundingly high rates of depression and anxiety on college campuses. Although these rates cannot be entirely explained by the underdevelopment of our college-age brains, such underdevelopment can explain these rates in part. Our brains are not done being spongy. We are not at the point where we are able to be as fully resilient as we’d like. We lack some coping skills — on a biological level. Cut yourself some slack — we’re all still kids trying to figure out how to be adults.
(02/24/16 8:50pm)
I wrote an article last semester on mental health on campus. Here is why this problem is still relevant.
I am a human being attending college. If you are reading this, chances are you are also a human being attending college. The current population of students in college is experiencing an incredibly high rate of mental health issues. The National Institute of Health found that nearly one in ten people between the age of 18 and 25 will experience a major depressive episode. One in three young adults will have an anxiety disorder. Although women are twice as likely to experience a depressive episode and 60 percent more likely to have an anxiety disorder, these are issues that are extensively affecting the entire college-age population. Depression and anxiety are not the only mental health issues at hand. Eating disorders, trauma, OCD and more are endemic on college campuses.
Some factors exacerbate these problems for our generation; UCLA found that people are spending an average of six hours a week on social media. Multiple studies — such as one by Johan Bollan at Indiana University — have found that time on social media is inversely correlated with happiness. Technology is not the only problematic factor. According to a 2014 report by the Council of Economic Advisers, more students than ever are relying on loans to pay for secondary education. There are many social, economic and academic pressures at this age and in this type of community.
There are two primary reasons for my interest in the extreme prevalence of mental health issues in college. The first is that, after working in a neuroscience lab that studies depression, I became more aware of the detrimental effect that mental health struggles have on daily life, and that the biological origins of these struggles have yet to be fully explained. The second reason is that, after countless conversations with seemingly happy but secretly very unhappy people, I have come to the conclusion that everyone has their own demons. The reality is that these demons go completely unacknowledged or ignored because they are not considered “societally acceptable” to discuss.
Therefore, I have decided to spend my semester examining all aspects of the college-age experience that contribute to the prevalence of mental health issues. I am doing an independent study that will involve looking each week at a different contributing factor to this concern, ranging from the scientific to the subjective. I do so with the hope of finding some way to ameliorate the problem, as well as reduce the stigma that often comes with conversations about mental health. If you have a story that you feel is untold — or any opinion on the matter — feel free to reach out and help me paint a more informed picture of these issues (mhoar@middlebury.edu).
(12/10/15 4:14am)
“Have you been feeling depressed or down for most of the day nearly every day? Are you experiencing a loss of pleasure in activities you usually enjoy?” After a full summer of conducting phone interviews in a neuroscience lab that studies depression, these questions are burned into my memory.
And so are the answers to these questions that I received. This experience led to my firmly held belief that many people are experiencing extreme emotional pain and so much of this pain is being hidden.
There is a misconception about mental health on this campus. There have been pervasive conversations about stress — particularly with respect to academic performance — and wellness of the student body. However, much of this conversation misses the mark.
Mental health is about the subjective experience of the individual. There are a myriad of mental health problems — anxiety disorders, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, to name a few — with a myriad of potential causes including loss, trauma, possibly genetics and stress.
Notice that stress is just one of the potential causes. Academic stress has come to dominate our community’s conversation about mental health, and it is only a piece of the puzzle.
Generalizations and comparisons disregard this very important aspect of the concept of mental health. Therefore, we need to shift the conversation not to what is causing the general stress of the campus but rather what is causing the stress of the individual. Each person has a unique background and personality disposition. Although it is important to discuss the culture in which we students exist on this campus, there is not enough discussion about the fact that mental health is individualized. The assumption of homogeneity is an inaccurate assumption.
The other problem that I have commonly seen in my conversations with peers on this campus is the problem of comparisons, a problem that is exactly counter to the concept of mental health. It could be that one individual with a significant trauma history develops no PTSD, but an individual with a genetic predisposition and no precipitating event develops significant major depressive disorder. Many people feel guilty about seeking help when they feel they have not had a significant event to cause their mental health problems. We should not be making generalizations or comparisons. Rather, we should be focusing on giving individuals the tools to tackle their highly individualized mental health problems.
Part of this will entail reducing stigma on campus. Whenever I sit in the waiting room in Parton in the counseling office, I always notice the immediate air of embarrassment when another student walks in. People are uncomfortable and ashamed to openly acknowledge their struggles with mental health.
This is partly why I believe academic stress has become a central part of the conversation on campus. Academic stress is something that almost everyone experiences and that it is socially acceptable to discuss. However, people are exceedingly uncomfortable when it comes to talking about social anxieties or family problems or other forms of stress. Therefore, academic stress is receiving a disproportionate amount of attention. I also think that this emphasis on the academic stress of students is creating a divide between students and faculty members within the community. In reality, faculty members experience their own stressors and mental health problems that should be included in the dialogue.
We need to take a step back and look at how we are approaching mental health on this campus. Rather than jumping at the chance to make generalizations about academic stress causing mental health problems, we need to have more conversations about the experience of individuals. The Grid is a step in the right direction with a more holistic approach to student wellness, but there is still more work to be done. The Grid is a solutions-based approach to a problem with root causes that have yet to be fully determined. Groups such as the Student Wellness group and Resilience should be broadcasted, and students should be encouraged to engage in an open dialogue. This is a key part of the problem – there is so much going unsaid about things people go through on this campus, things that reach far beyond just academic stress. People are embarrassed and scared to share their experience, and this is the aspect of our culture that we need to address. We need to put more emphasis on the concept that mental health is about the experience of the individual.