What is happening to a lot of our young people? The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation last weekend heard that in the last three decades the number of young people presenting at the Mater hospital in Dublin after self-harming has increased fivefold. Addressing the conference, Prof. Matthew Sadlier, a consultant psychiatrist, blamed excessive use of social media and said it is creating a “broken generation”.
Prof Sadlier is not the only one raising the alarm. Last year two other psychiatrists, Dr Mary Cannon and Dr Michele Hill, said that children’s hospitals were dealing with “astronomical” numbers of young people who had self-harmed.
Cannon said it was a “hidden epidemic” while Hill described the mental health issues facing children and teenagers as “shocking”.
Some of what is happening can perhaps be attributed to greater awareness of mental health and more people willing to come forward when they have mental health problems. But few seem to doubt that we are dealing with a growing crisis.
Aggression
For example, schools are also reporting an increase in mental health problems, including more aggression towards teachers from pupils. Sometimes this involves actual physical attacks on teachers.
The same broad problem is being manifested on our streets. A recent survey of transport workers found that 80% of drivers suffer abuse on a regular basis from passengers. A fifth said it happens on a daily basis.
A representative of a shopkeepers’ association recently told an Oireachtas committee about the big increase in shoplifting being encountered by their members and tellingly added: “The most worrying aspect of shoplifting today is the accompanying threats, the actual violence, the obscenities, the misogyny and the vile racist abuse levelled at owners and staff.”
In other words, people are becoming more aggressive. I believe the recent riot in Dublin was not simply the result of anti-immigrant sentiment, but was a symptom of increased aggression overall.
Prominent academics point to a very strong correlation between the rise of smart phones around 12 years ago and the rise of anxiety and depression in young people”
Male and female mental health problems tend to manifest themselves in stereotypically male and female ways. If a boy is going through severe difficulties, he will often take it out on others, while a girl will often take it out on herself, which is why girls are more likely to self-harm than boys.
A lot of fingers of blame are pointing at smart phones and social media. Several prominent academics point to a very strong correlation between the rise of smart phones around 12 years ago and the rise of anxiety and depression in young people, and especially teenage girls. They see both lifting off at the same time.
Scrolling
Scrolling on your phone constantly means you spend less time relaxing. Your brain is always seeking the next dopamine hit. Dopamine is a chemical messenger in your brain that social media seems almost designed to stimulate.
When you post something on social media, you then spend your time watching to see if you have had any reaction. (Confession; I use Twitter and spend quite a lot of time scrolling through it).
If you get no reaction, you’re disappointed, especially if you see your peers getting far more reaction. A lot of people post images of themselves on social media, so they are seeking direct validation of whatever it is they are doing. They want to see lots of ‘likes’. It must be depressing if you are 14 years of age and are receiving very little reaction, or worse, if you are receiving hostile reaction.
Social media also allows you to constantly compare yourself with others. Are their lives better than yours? Are they better-looking? Do they go on better holidays? Do they live in a nicer house?
You feel under pressure all the time. Social media has been called a “comparison cauldron”.
Young people spend less time meeting each other than was once the case because they are spending so long on their phones”
In the days before social media, once a vulnerable teenager came home from school, they would feel under less social pressure. They could disappear to their bedroom or slump in front of the TV and switch off for a while. But with their smart phones, they are switched on all the time, including when they should be asleep, and this is obviously anxiety-inducing.
In addition, young people spend less time meeting each other than was once the case because they are spending so long on their phones. But meeting people is what allows us to develop social skills, as distinct from social media skills. If you don’t develop proper social skills, then ordinary social situations will make you feel more anxious than they should.
Experts
Because of the effects of social media, a growing number of experts are saying that schools should ban smart phone use during school time and that children under a certain age shouldn’t be sold smart phones at all, or use social media. In the case of the social media companies, that would mean proof-of-age would have to be provided before they could sign up to the likes of TikTok. Yes, some young people would find ways around this, but a lot wouldn’t.
All of this would be a step in the right direction, but I wonder if social media and smart phones are being blamed for too much?
For example, if it is purely social media, then why are teenage girls with liberal views more likely to suffer from anxiety than teenage girls with a more socially conservative outlook? One theory (and this is based on US data) is that more traditionalist-minded young women are also more likely to be religious, and religion gives people a stronger sense of meaning and purpose and community than non-religious worldviews and practices offer.
It is hard to believe that the absence of a good father isn’t having bad effects, but this is something we are very unwilling to talk about because it seems ‘judgemental’”
A further theory is that children overall are less resilient than they used to be, perhaps because of over-parenting, that is, the tendency to overprotect children from adversity meaning the children don’t develop coping skills of their own and do not learn that life is rarely free of challenges.
Another factor might be family breakdown. An awful lot of children today are growing up without a father present in their lives. It is hard to believe that the absence of a good father isn’t having bad effects, but this is something we are very unwilling to talk about because it seems ‘judgemental’.
One way or the other though, something bad is happening and all those self-harming children turning up in our hospitals is a big sign of it. With so many of our young people succumbing to mental health problems, shouldn’t this be a much bigger national issue than it is? Shouldn’t we, in fact, be reassessing where we are going as a society? Isn’t what is taking place as big in its own way as the housing crisis, and maybe even worse than that?
Rise in mental illness not all to do with social media
What is happening to a lot of our young people? The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation last weekend heard that in the last three decades the number of young people presenting at the Mater hospital in Dublin after self-harming has increased fivefold. Addressing the conference, Prof. Matthew Sadlier, a consultant psychiatrist, blamed excessive use of social media and said it is creating a “broken generation”.
Prof Sadlier is not the only one raising the alarm. Last year two other psychiatrists, Dr Mary Cannon and Dr Michele Hill, said that children’s hospitals were dealing with “astronomical” numbers of young people who had self-harmed.
Cannon said it was a “hidden epidemic” while Hill described the mental health issues facing children and teenagers as “shocking”.
Some of what is happening can perhaps be attributed to greater awareness of mental health and more people willing to come forward when they have mental health problems. But few seem to doubt that we are dealing with a growing crisis.
Aggression
For example, schools are also reporting an increase in mental health problems, including more aggression towards teachers from pupils. Sometimes this involves actual physical attacks on teachers.
The same broad problem is being manifested on our streets. A recent survey of transport workers found that 80% of drivers suffer abuse on a regular basis from passengers. A fifth said it happens on a daily basis.
A representative of a shopkeepers’ association recently told an Oireachtas committee about the big increase in shoplifting being encountered by their members and tellingly added: “The most worrying aspect of shoplifting today is the accompanying threats, the actual violence, the obscenities, the misogyny and the vile racist abuse levelled at owners and staff.”
In other words, people are becoming more aggressive. I believe the recent riot in Dublin was not simply the result of anti-immigrant sentiment, but was a symptom of increased aggression overall.
Male and female mental health problems tend to manifest themselves in stereotypically male and female ways. If a boy is going through severe difficulties, he will often take it out on others, while a girl will often take it out on herself, which is why girls are more likely to self-harm than boys.
A lot of fingers of blame are pointing at smart phones and social media. Several prominent academics point to a very strong correlation between the rise of smart phones around 12 years ago and the rise of anxiety and depression in young people, and especially teenage girls. They see both lifting off at the same time.
Scrolling
Scrolling on your phone constantly means you spend less time relaxing. Your brain is always seeking the next dopamine hit. Dopamine is a chemical messenger in your brain that social media seems almost designed to stimulate.
When you post something on social media, you then spend your time watching to see if you have had any reaction. (Confession; I use Twitter and spend quite a lot of time scrolling through it).
If you get no reaction, you’re disappointed, especially if you see your peers getting far more reaction. A lot of people post images of themselves on social media, so they are seeking direct validation of whatever it is they are doing. They want to see lots of ‘likes’. It must be depressing if you are 14 years of age and are receiving very little reaction, or worse, if you are receiving hostile reaction.
Social media also allows you to constantly compare yourself with others. Are their lives better than yours? Are they better-looking? Do they go on better holidays? Do they live in a nicer house?
You feel under pressure all the time. Social media has been called a “comparison cauldron”.
In the days before social media, once a vulnerable teenager came home from school, they would feel under less social pressure. They could disappear to their bedroom or slump in front of the TV and switch off for a while. But with their smart phones, they are switched on all the time, including when they should be asleep, and this is obviously anxiety-inducing.
In addition, young people spend less time meeting each other than was once the case because they are spending so long on their phones. But meeting people is what allows us to develop social skills, as distinct from social media skills. If you don’t develop proper social skills, then ordinary social situations will make you feel more anxious than they should.
Experts
Because of the effects of social media, a growing number of experts are saying that schools should ban smart phone use during school time and that children under a certain age shouldn’t be sold smart phones at all, or use social media. In the case of the social media companies, that would mean proof-of-age would have to be provided before they could sign up to the likes of TikTok. Yes, some young people would find ways around this, but a lot wouldn’t.
All of this would be a step in the right direction, but I wonder if social media and smart phones are being blamed for too much?
For example, if it is purely social media, then why are teenage girls with liberal views more likely to suffer from anxiety than teenage girls with a more socially conservative outlook? One theory (and this is based on US data) is that more traditionalist-minded young women are also more likely to be religious, and religion gives people a stronger sense of meaning and purpose and community than non-religious worldviews and practices offer.
A further theory is that children overall are less resilient than they used to be, perhaps because of over-parenting, that is, the tendency to overprotect children from adversity meaning the children don’t develop coping skills of their own and do not learn that life is rarely free of challenges.
Another factor might be family breakdown. An awful lot of children today are growing up without a father present in their lives. It is hard to believe that the absence of a good father isn’t having bad effects, but this is something we are very unwilling to talk about because it seems ‘judgemental’.
One way or the other though, something bad is happening and all those self-harming children turning up in our hospitals is a big sign of it. With so many of our young people succumbing to mental health problems, shouldn’t this be a much bigger national issue than it is? Shouldn’t we, in fact, be reassessing where we are going as a society? Isn’t what is taking place as big in its own way as the housing crisis, and maybe even worse than that?
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