Saw this story on the news this morning and the most ironic aspect to me was online support. As in the report, in a great many instances it’s the online world that creates the problems and parents will try to restrict access to the web and mobile devices and here they are suggesting the very thing that may be the problem, is the solution.
If I was having serious mental health problems, I would much prefer a real person to talk to, rather than an ‘online friend’.
[quote=“glass half empty 2” post=9046]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23195837
Saw this story on the news this morning and the most ironic aspect to me was online support. As in the report, in a great many instances it’s the online world that creates the problems and parents will try to restrict access to the web and mobile devices and here they are suggesting the very thing that may be the problem, is the solution.[/quote]
The “online world” doesn’t cause the problems, it is some of the people who use it, just like the real world. That is like saying that because your child is being bullied at a school they shouldn’t talk to anyone at school about it!
[quote]
If I was having serious mental health problems, I would much prefer a real person to talk to, rather than an ‘online friend’.[/quote]
You might, but children might not. They might find it much easier to go to a website and talk to someone anonymously than going and finding an actual person to talk to.
The fact it is invariably online now and is instantaneous is the problem … take a photo or video of you or someone doing something a bit sus (just like some I’ve got from parties years ago gathering dust) and it can be effectively global in a fraction of a second ; write something in an email/blog/on social media and it’s there for ‘all’ to see there and then pushed around to all and sundry and there is naff all you can do about who it gets sent to. This could even be as a screen grab.
Back in the day take a photo and it could take weeks or months before anyone sees it and even then the audience would be extremely limited and the impact/hold over someone is minimal, even polaroids; write or say something and it would be effectively limited to the people you said it to. It might become subject to chinese whispers or passed around and distorted. But the initial audience would generally be ½ dozen.
Thus when someone wants to pick on someone they can do it online and do a heck of a lot of damage, and a whole lot more than playground banter and name calling of yesteryear.
The fact that teenagers find it easier “talking” to someone over the emotionally devoid cyberspace, is a concern.
From personal experience, I don’t think the connection being made here between ‘cyber bullying’ and depression/mental health issues is at all helpful.
Being on the receiving end of bullying could certainly be a contributing factor to depression, but it’s unlikely to be the whole story. Genuine depression (the illness, which is a completely different thing to ‘feeling sad’) is usually the result of numerous contributing factors over a period of time and is most likely to affect people who are not willing to talk about those factors.
It’s a bit self-perpetuating. The person doesn’t seek help for issue A because they feel it’s a minor thing and they should be able to cope, then issue B gets reacted to in the same way, then C, then D, etc. Then ultimately they break.
If young people can be encouraged to seek help for the ‘minor’ issues before they contribute to a break down, that can only be a good thing.
When I had mine, I was still unwilling to talk about contributing factors that I felt were trivial or minor, but if I had been able to talk to someone anonymously about those then I may have been able to avoid going over the edge.
If any of that makes sense?
[quote=“glass half empty 2” post=9054]The fact that teenagers find it easier “talking” to someone over the emotionally devoid cyberspace, is a concern.[/quote]I suspect that it has far more to do with anonymity than a lack of emotion.
If you want to talk about something difficult or embarrassing then it may well be preferable to do it via a screen.
[quote=“MattB” post=9069][quote=“glass half empty 2” post=9054]The fact that teenagers find it easier “talking” to someone over the emotionally devoid cyberspace, is a concern.[/quote]I suspect that it has far more to do with anonymity than a lack of emotion.
If you want to talk about something difficult or embarrassing then it may well be preferable to do it via a screen.[/quote]
I’d say that being in an unemotional setting helps.
Nobody really wants to be ‘the emo kid’ telling everyone how awful everything is for them and how nobody understands. Being able to divorce how you are reacting emotionally from how you actually feel and finding out what’s causing it can be a big part of treatment.