The Kids Are (Going to Be) Alright: The Internet as a Force for Good

Older youths, between the ages of 26 and 35 experience significant feelings of FOMO as well. For example, middle-aged adults 30 years and above often take stock of their accomplishments and compare themselves with their peers, which can lower self-worth and mental well-being⁷. Social media sites like Instagram and LinkedIn, where one can compare lifestyles and professional growth, are some of the main culprits for inciting FOMO. Older youths on LinkedIn might find themselves feeling inadequate, as other users within their network share their ‘career victories’ and other job-related accomplishments that make people question the worth of their accomplishments⁸.

The Internet in The Covid Era

In the COVID era, social media has become an additional source of stress, as social media became saturated with updates on rising cases and death tolls. Due to lockdowns, more people turned to their mobile phones as a source of news. This led to the phenomenon of ‘doomscrolling’, where a social media user devotes most of their time viewing and absorbing negative news. The doomscroll causes a skewed perception of the world and fosters pessimism. For youth with existing mental health conditions, the social media doomscroll day after day has been associated with higher instances of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms⁹.

At the same time, the COVID era has also unlocked the internet’s significant potential for improving mental health outcomes. Crucially, the pandemic has brought essential mental health services into cyberspace. The rise of telehealth, which brings professional healthcare services to one’s computer and smartphone, provides the guidance of a doctor without the hassle of going down to a physical location for consultation¹⁰. In Singapore, there has been a steady rise in the amount of psychological health providers pivoting towards virtual therapy services. Online services often improve access to mental healthcare for youths. By meeting virtually with healthcare professionals, youths report feeling less intimidated as opposed to meeting a therapist physically¹¹. However, access to online mental health services is hindered by the significant financial cost of telehealth services, as shown in Figure 1.

For older youths, telehealth services might be more within reach financially, since most already have incomes from full-time jobs. However, such access to mental healthcare can vary significantly between youths of different income groups, with those of higher incomes feeling less financial strain when getting help for mental health. Accordingly, those of lower income report lower levels of mental health than those of higher income¹⁴.

New Mental Health Resources

On the bright side, affordable solutions are increasingly popping up online for those who need mental health care but cannot afford current prices. For example, free smartphone apps provide remote personalised guidance through in-app messaging and questionnaires that allow clinicians to monitor a patient’s mental health at rates cheaper than talk therapy¹⁵. Apps like 29k promise “science-backed tools” to improve mental health “without the fear of additional financial costs”¹⁶. Nevertheless, more studies are still needed to assess the effectiveness of mobile apps in improving mental wellness¹⁷. These apps continue to face teething problems that curtail their full therapeutic potential¹⁸. However, existing studies show that in the short-term, these apps do decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety, which shows the great potential the internet has to host therapeutic tools to improve youth mental health¹⁹.

There is also increasing awareness of the need to moderate internet use, especially on social media platforms. Significant advances have been made in mental healthcare, where there are now specific programmes that seek to deal with emotions like FOMO resulting from social media usage. For example, social media hygiene programmes are being rolled out by mental health providers, where younger youths are guided to turn off smartphone notifications, unfollow accounts that create negative feelings, and spend time on non-smartphone activities, which were seen to reduce the incidence of depression amongst younger youths²⁰.

Internet as Solace

The content and social interactions users have on the internet can in and of itself be a source of happiness. For both older and younger youths, the internet has become a place to seek solace and find communities of belonging that are not available in person. Younger youths, especially those in their teens, are in a process of understanding basic aspects of their identities, such as who they are, what they believe in, and how they wish to live²¹. Through online communities, younger youths can find individuals or groups with whom they feel a sense of belonging. Such feelings of belonging might supplement connections youths find in person or make up for a lack of such communities of belonging in person²².

Importantly, youths who have social anxiety might find communicating within online communities safer and more comfortable²³. For younger youths between the ages of 20 and 25, who are considered ‘young adults’, the internet has a practical element of ensuring continued interaction with an already established social network, despite conflicting schedules that have arisen due to greater responsibilities at work or in the family. Online, young adults can regularly catch up with each other through short updates about their everyday life and check-ins to see how friends are doing²⁴. Hence, the internet ensures that those who struggle with socialising in person can feel less isolated.

For older youths, the internet has also similarly been helpful by creating a forum to discuss the pertinent issues that their generation faces but have for a long time been stigmatised. Most of these youths who are between the ages of 26 and 35, and especially those in their older years, were likely introduced to the internet without a smartphone. Online, heated discussions about values like parenting, filial piety, and the rising cost of living are held openly. As these are issues that the newly independent older youths immediately face, the internet can be a useful resource to seek guidance, or even refuge, from others who are in the same shoes. Like younger youths, older youths also foster a sense of belonging by being on the internet, as they can find communities where they can talk about important issues that matter to them.

Ultimately, the internet has proven itself to be a place that can be a positive force for improving youth mental health. Presented with both the positives and negatives of the internet, I suggest that we look at the great potential the internet has, to be as a force for good. With the power that the internet holds in connecting people across borders and its ability to offer mental health services that would have previously been inaccessible, there have never been more opportunities for people to find solidarity and form meaningful connections. I further suggest that if anything, the internet has just made more tangible issues that we have faced for generations, such as low self-esteem in youths and financial inequality. I suggest that this clarity the internet offers us of pre-existing issues, along with the internet’s ability to connect individuals across borders, reveals how internet technologies have the potential to be a force for good by allowing us to clearly identify our problems and tap on global humanity’s knowledge to come up with solutions.