Adolescents in Cyberspace
Social media is ubiquitous and intricately interwoven with the lives of people. Social media includes web and mobile platforms that allow individuals to connect with others within a virtual network where they can share, co-create or exchange various forms of digital content, including information, messages, photos, or videos. There are an estimated 5.2 billion social media users worldwide. Adults make a clear distinction between online and offline social interactions, while this distinction is less evident in young people. They grow up with plentiful online resources to interact and communicate with others, making them digital natives.
America's adolescents find themselves alone and lonely in cyberspace. The technology that promised instant connection with the wider world has actually disconnected individuals from one another by inserting a lifeless intermediary into human connection. Personnel contact has slipped into the superficial, and the sought after intimacy has faded away. "Social" media has proven to be "antisocial", tricking our eager adolescents by disconnecting them from friends and family after promising to hyper-connect them.
An Emerging Mental Health Crisis
- A new CDC survey shows significant increases in high school students reporting persistent feelings of isolation and hopelessness, considering suicide or attempting suicide over the past decade.
- Two out of five students (44%) reported feelings of sadness and being constantly misunderstood, causing them to stop physically interacting with friends and family. About one in five has seriously considered suicide, and nearly one in 10 have attempted suicide.
- Suicide is now a leading cause of death among adolescents aged 15–29 worldwide.
Crisis in Cyberspace
It is a surprise to us all that the most ingenious communication device ever invented has backfired on society causing a communication crisis by removing privacy, intimacy, and trust from intimate interaction. Social workers who labor in our adolescent community as advisors in educational institutions now see the social isolation caused by the cell phone/internet/social media revolution as their number one problem and area of concern.
Youth Mental Health First Aid
Since the beginning of the pandemic and the wide dispersion and almost addictive abuse of cell phones, social workers have been buried in adolescent mental health problems. Often young people are hesitant to convey the pain they are experiencing for fear of being judged or not taken seriously. Research shows, however, that having caring adults outside the family who serve as mentors and role models can serve as an important protective factor for adolescents. For example, the survey reported that students who felt they could turn to someone at school were significantly less likely to report poor mental health. Over these last four years, education social workers have developed an initial method for dealing with our troubled youth epidemic that they call Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA). It recommends this gentle approach:
- Approach and assess for risk of suicide or harm.
- Listen non-judgmentally.
- Give reassurance and information.
- Encourage appropriate professional help.
- Encourage self-help and other support strategies.
H.E.L.P.
"We must show them that we care and want to hear what they have to say. We can do that by committing to listening non-judgmentally. We must accept what they convey to us, even if we disagree," says Jermine Alberty, M. Div. "Avoid 'faking' concern. Genuinely and authentically embrace them. They know the difference."
He adds, “In addition to using the MHFA Action Plan (ALGEE), whenever I encounter young people in distress, suffering or experiencing feelings of isolation, I employ four steps to “HELP” them:
- Hearing them.
- Engaging them.
- Learning from them.
- Planning with them.
"The key in my HELP model is that it must be the youth’s plan, something we create together. When we empower the young person to create their own strategy with our support, they are more likely to follow it."
Parents Participation
Social workers recognize how difficult it is for parents to step in when they feel their adolescents are abusing social media and suffering emotionally as a result. The (ALGEE) and (HELP) models described above are designed to help parents as well as social work professionals deal effectively with this social media epidemic. Although rather simple, the two models are delicate, incisive, and effective. We should all take note.
