A study from the Gallup, Walton Family Foundation shows that about 60% of Gen Z have some sort of mental health issue.
Your mental health can affect everything. Your attitude, values, morales, judgment, and more. What can you blame? Blame society? The internet? Social media?
Those are all fair reasons but everyone has a choice. You could take a few minutes for yourself to decompress than compare yourself to those you see on social media but many don’t make the right choice.
Many do not choose to put down the phone because they can’t. They can be addicted to the adrenaline, the blue light that a phone gives off. Phones are built to be addicting. Hours on devices will just cause that addiction to grow and will become something that will plant themself deeper than roots.
Social media and the internet have impacted the education and intelligence of the youth in many ways. Positive and negative. The internet is filled with rumors, false facts, and fake news. This can influence generations to become more and more naive as well as more dependent on technology. Why do your homework when an A.I can do it for you?
On the other hand, the internet is a good place to find an education. Given the right source, kids can learn faster and be aware of world events. Social media can also be a way to get friends from countries away and learn about their culture or talk and connect with those around you. There are good intentions behind these toxic devices but not many use it for that intention.
These things are factors to the change of new generations’ mentalities. As well as family, friends, teachers, and anything else that they interact with.
Officer Will Stearns, Liberty’s school resource officer, has a strong opinion about social media.
“They react in the weirdest, most dramatic way possible over the smallest things,” Stearns said.
Kids now don’t have respect for others. Just respect for themselves.
They shared every detail of their life for attention while Kim Taylor, the librarian, has a different opinion.
“We didn’t think it was socially acceptable to share all your personal problems. You had a problem and you dealt with it personally,” Taylor said.
With all this being said, is there any hope for newer generations to go back to better days? Officer Stearns and Mrs. Playle thinks so.
“I believe, like everything, things will come back. My only fear is that part of the world may not be able to,” Playle said.
Maybe with the right guidance and leadership, things will change.
