A Crisis on Campus: How post-secondary education and social media fails the youth

Just imagine yourself at 18 years of age: you’re belongings are jammed up in the backseat and trunk of your Honda Civic, and you got the GPS directing you to (literally) the next phase of your life. You just tweeted, “Off to Rez!!” on your Twitter account, and you’re Snapchatting the awesome dorm room you lucked out on with your newfound friends. It’s daunting, terrifying, yet simultaneously exciting and electrifying — you’re ready for adulthood.

Three weeks into your post-secondary education, you’re now accustomed to the three-hour lectures, the annoying four-hour breaks in between your next class, and a caffeine habit that you just can’t knack. But on the other side of the coin, you’re beginning to feel a form of pressure that was not there during your high school days. That pressure begins a metamorphosis into stress, and that stress transitions into frustration, and that frustration turns into sadness. And what was once supposed to be a fulfilling, joyful phase of your now-young adulthood, has become something else entirely.

A few years ago, Ryerson University (located at the entertainment hub of Toronto, Canada) saw a 200% increase for counselling and development from its students, says Dr. Su-Ting Teo, the school’s director of health and wellness. In fact, statistics show that a quarter of university-aged Canadians will experience some form of stress, anxiety, or depression at least once. And it is a statistic that continues to rise to unprecedented levels.

Over the course of four years, social media and its use amongst university-aged Canadians has increased dramatically the same. In June 2015, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health conducted a population study on the association of daily social media use and mental health amongst students in Ontario. According to the study, nearly 80% of adolescents use social media on a daily occurrence, 50% of that allotted use being over two hours. This includes the top four: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and/or Snapchat. And out of this study, they found that those who use social media daily have low to fair self-rated mental health, low self-esteem, 95% confidence interval, and psychological distress.

So, how does this align with mental health in post-secondary education and its students?

Firstly, when using social media, it can seriously affect the cycle of sleep and its quality — a predecessor to an ailment in physical health, thus mental health.

Secondly, the overconsumption of these social media outlets can integrate a behaviour of “passive use”, where, observing other people’s social media accounts can lead to jealousy, resentment, and/or envy. It is the simple notion of the “fear of missing out” — which can lead to psychological distress and/or anxiety.

Lastly, any young adult who over-actively uses social media — status updates, photo/video uploads, splurge in comments, etc., can drastically waver his/her self-esteem. The consistent need for approval of not only friends/family, but strangers as well, can drain one’s ability to manage stress, depression, and anxiety.

If you combine the stress of performing well academically, social life, and a part-time job, it can lead to psychological stress, anxiety, and/or depression. It is up to post-secondary institutions to exploit said social media outlets, and utilize them to bring awareness and responsibility to the psychological relationship between school and this technology. If this can be done, young adults — whose mind you, brains have not fully developed — to make informed decisions with their behaviour online, and encourage self-acceptance with themselves in reality, not just cyberspace.