What does it mean when you are ALONE?
“ You will never know just by looking at a person whether they are suffering from mental health problems or not”
What does being alone mean to you?
When people do not understand your thoughts, your overwhelming emotions or your distrupting feelings and you want to speak to someone, anyone, but you realize you have no one to talk to, that is when you are alone. This type of loneliness can have extreme repercussions. This is especially felt by our generation because of the increasing use of technology and due to the generation gap between us and our elders. We find solace in confiding in our peers rather than our parents or elders because our peers are in the same boat as us, they deeply emapathise with us and our problems. This relationship between us and our parents could get better if our social problems were not sidelined and given more importance than our academics.
The problems, the causes, the impact and the huge step taken by teenagers during the pandemic lock-down are all discussed in the podcast “Such Conversations Matter” — Saurabh Nanda
Our people in the Indian society love to put tags on people and consider’s labelling them as their forte, but understanding and openly talking about mental health is not their cup of tea. Similarly as children or students we are given little consideration and belief that we can use the internet for greater purposes than just scrolling through instagram… The proof of this is the Bloomoquent_Digi, a platform created by high school children who wanted to #usethiscrises to create oppurtunities for school-going children to express themselves creatively.
There is a lot of talent in India but there is no place to showcase it. So our highschoolers made Bloomoquent_Digi to showcase their creativity by gaming, art, dance, etc. This platform is breaking the misconception of children not being able to use internet effectively. It is an innovative idea to create booming oppurtunities for children. Using internet however, has its own set of issues, even when used properly.
Use social media, but do not let social media use you. Cyber Bullying is not an old concept it has surfaced with the recent and explosive use of internet. Stalking, spamming, sending explicit pictures are all considered to be a form of cyber bullying. More access to technology often leads to overwhelming emotions and situations, it leads to mental pain which cannot sometimes be potrayed in words. Still we can and should learn from the children who used the facilities of the internet to be productive during lock-down.
To brighten up the children and use the time at home Bloomoquent_Digi has proven to be a remarkable step taken by teenagers. It has simultaneously helped the children to express what is going through their minds during the lockdown using various forms.
Areas abroad like in Scandinavia, people are allowed to take some time off of work for themselves when they feel low or depressed, they have understood that depression is a silent killer. In India however, people do not want to participate in spreading awareness. We have touched the skies when it comes to our technological development, but even when we are better and developed than we were before, there is no change in how we use the internet. Instead of posting awareness about mental health and supporting people who are suffering by hosting campaigns, we judge people, give hate and post mean comments, send explicit pictures, harrass them. To break this vicious practice Bloomoquent_Digi has emerged as a new and innovative way to produce enriching content to communicate and express ourselves.