The epidemic of mental health caused by academic pressure & social media

“It was crippling. I didn’t recognize these as panic attacks at the time. In school, I asked to go to the bathroom in every class just to get out of the room because I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Anxiety became my middle name, following me everywhere I went… 9th grade came and went, but my anxiety stayed with me into the 10th grade,” says Sierra, a daughter, a student, and a young woman. 

Depression. The word that carried on continuous heaviness and pain with the rest of Sierra’s 10th-grade year. [TRIGGER WARNING: mature topics discussed ahead…] She had not noticed her suffering until she picked up a razor and cut herself – seeing this as a bolt for freedom. What had started as an occasional headache turned into many, many years of mental trauma and its lingering effects on not just herself, but everyone whom she was surrounded by. 

In connection to an average student’s life, many can relate to what Sierra was feeling and the actions she took in response to her well-being and experience. Whether it’s abuse, trauma, grief, loss, or dysfunctional families, mental health comes in various forms. 

Like Sierra, many students can relate to the feeling of exhaustion as they look up at the clock on their phones which reads 2:00 A.M. They rush to complete their assignments only to be discouraged from the never-ending tabs on their screen, which only seem to get smaller and smaller. This continuous routine that students are built to complete only gets more tiring. Still, they continue to type and type and type, praying that sleep does not take over. 

Sierra’s story has shown how situations like this have the potential of  becoming severe. And that is just one person. 

There are constant standards and high expectations for students to achieve in our society, which may result in drastic exhaustion throughout the day. This became a reality for most  teenagers in the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic that struck at the beginning of 2020 and forced them to adapt to a new way of life. This came with the consequence of mental health trauma and a brand new reliance on social media. 

Students may have become oblivious as to how much exists beyond an electronic device, and because of this, social media can hinder their mental well-being. 

Yes, social media does fulfill a human’s deep and widespread needs, but is it worth having to experience all the downsides that affect mental health just to satisfy our emotional needs?

Although sleep deprivation is an issue with several faces, strategies that support inclusion – such as mental health days and the support for mindfulness breaks – can help alleviate mental health, performance, and well-being. Likewise, participating in a social media detox is essential to relieving the detrimental harm that is left behind due to the pressure of building the ‘perfect’ profile for the rest of the world to see. 

When implemented, these techniques can help assist the unavoidable situations that some students may find themselves in. Without them, these situations have the possibility of draining their mental health, including their physiological and physical depletion. 

ACADEMIC PRESSURE:

After an average of 10 lengthy months of rigorous schooling, the abiding routine of academic pressure often gets diminished and students tend to have various long term effects, such as sleep deprivation and mental health issues. 

Behind most students’ eyes, there is a constant worry about their academic achievements. The majority of students – especially those in high-school and college – often focus on the foundations they need to achieve in order to build a strong future for themselves. 

It is nerve-wracking enough to focus on many goals that most students set for themselves in connection to their future, as well as having to focus on the huge and additional workload from each course, which can become daunting. 

In most cases, a student’s life outside the school environment also becomes chaotic. Trying to find a balance between these two environments can be extremely tense. The pressure set upon an average student’s daily life becomes demanding as they manage the tasks that need to be completed, which can vary. 

The list goes on and on. 

After the COVID-19 pandemic that struck in March 2020, education was in a crisis. Students had lost the ability to interact with their friends in person after constantly seeing them on a daily basis and were forced to start instruction via Zoom, a video conferencing platform that distanced them further from learning the content of their courses.

Students not only had to adapt to a new, complete and strange way of learning, but they had to manage their assignments and coursework on their own. With everything that was going on in the world regarding the pandemic, many students were faced with many challenges not related to school but rather the health of themselves and their families. 

Although some teachers had given students time on Zoom to complete some assignments, students didn’t find this as beneficial if they were to complete it in person. Ultimately, some students were faced with many more distractions and could not focus. 

Many students that were struggling pre-pandemic were lost in the ways that new instruction was being taught. They had trouble navigating between Zoom, doing tasks at home and assignments continued to pile up. Soon, students were seen to be rushing and handing many missing assignments before marking periods came to an end. 

Sophomore Arpita Sushil was in 8th grade when the pandemic ensued. She not only had to finish middle school but start high school from scratch on a computer. She expressed many times that her experience as a freshman could have been more fun and not so overwhelming as much. 

When interviewed about the transition back to in-person school in 2021 and if that has benefited her as a learner,  she states: 

“I definitely think it has helped me just because last year it was really hard to ask questions, something about it was just not comfortable at all. But, this year whenever I have a question, I just raise my hand and feel no judgment at all and get the response in a second, which means I am learning because the questions are being answered. I am also a visual learner, and being able to see it in person and hands on, rather than on a zoom screen is just a lot more helpful.” 

A course that she expressed was content heavy and challenging to do online was geometry. 

“It was hard because it was online. I genuinely do like a lot of math but I did not learn anything in geometry and it’s not on the teacher, it’s on me and just online schooling. I feel like I could have learned a lot more if I had it in person.” 

When comparing her sleep schedule from last year to this year, she noticed that she is struggling more with  sleep deprivation: “Although my sleep schedule was very bad last year too, I got more sleep. I fell asleep at 5 A.M last year and then woke up at 9 A.M. or 5 minutes before classes had started and then fell asleep right after because we had done the work for the day and I had nothing else for the rest of the day. But, this year I have homework and things I need to do for the whole day so a good night’s sleep is 7 hours but whenever I wake up I still feel so exhausted…

Last night I had 6 hours of sleep and I felt so done today when I woke up to the point where I felt like I should probably pretend I’m sick. I always try to rush out in the morning to catch the train and although I do catch it on time, it takes me 45 minutes to get here but then I need to get out 15 minutes before since sometimes trains don’t work which stresses me out. This is why I think transportation also plays a role in that.” 

The process of virtual schooling was one of the major and significant factors that made students feel overwhelmed. 

Not only was this process affecting their performance, but it was also affecting the amount of sleep they got. They no longer had to worry about sleep if they could have woken up minutes before a session had started. After the transition back to in-person, some students agree that how they are learning new concepts has been advantageous. 

Sophomore Kadiza Aktar asserts, “In terms of learning, I am learning a lot more this year because you are forced to be present in the class and you are physically there while the teacher is physically watching over you. Unlike Zoom last year, you were on the call and you can have your camera on but not have to participate- where no one can force you to participate. It’s like you are there but you’re not really there… 

This year you are learning a lot more because you’re actually paying attention since last year you could have been on your bed and could fall back asleep but now that you are forced to be in the class, you are being forced to learn and participate and do activities in class. So, I feel like that’s helping with the learning process. Although I had more time last year to complete my work, I feel like I am learning even more this year regardless if I had time or not.”

Although the transition from in-person to virtual learning was immense, many students have still found it challenging to transition remotely to in-person learning. They had to go back to their original learning environment while continuing to take precautions due to COVID still being present, after not having this routine for a year and a half.

Teacher Jeff Reeder, who teaches Algebra 2/ Trigonometry, gives his insights about both environments that students had to witness over the course of 2 years. 

He says, “I definitely have student fatigue in the forefront of my eye, it’s always been something that teachers consider and I think nowadays it’s even a bigger issue because there’s so many things outside of school that students have to worry about. For example, I went to school in the early 2000’s and that was about 20 years ago but I didn’t have the same world concerns that you guys have…

You guys are witnessing the crumbling of democracy, a global pandemic and unrepresented health and equity. You guys are witnessing so much stuff that you shouldn’t necessarily have to deal with. I feel trying to make sure that I can still teach the course but in a way that allows you the ability to focus on other things too is really important, especially these days.”  

During online school, Mr. Reeder noticed many trends considering the ways a student’s level was assessed and how that had compared pre-pandemic. 

He continues to say: “Online schooling- as far as the performance of students depends on how you measure that. If you are looking at the grades from last year, they are all higher than they were years past but how easy is it to just look at your phone, look at your notes? Literally you and your friend could get on facetime and take the exam together. Grades were higher but that’s only because it was very very difficult to assess an individual student’s level of understanding during the pandemic because how do you do that? Performance was higher but I don’t think the learning was higher.” 

Having put so much emphasis on the fact that he could feel an individual’s learning drop, he continued to notice many trends transitioning back to in-person in 2021. 

“Now that we are back in school and students are in a situation where it’s a lot more difficult to go around the bush and having to show what you know at that moment, grades have gone down since last year but I think that’s for 2 reasons. 

1. Because you are just getting used to getting back into the flow of having to study for this and realizing that “I am not going to have notes and I am not anybody… 
2. Because online learning has given students a diminished sense of what math they would know at this point. You can kind of just b* your way through and not necessarily  learn the concepts but now those concepts are coming up in this course. It essentially makes a bad problem even worse.” 

In some particular courses, students are required to take pre-exquisite classes that prepare students for the content in more challenging courses. The pandemic made students unaware of how this would impact them in the long run.

Learning the content for prerequisites is tremendously important and without this knowledge, students do not know how to move on with the next, challenging part of their current lessons. The design of learning the intro of a course is particularly designed to get increasingly challenging. 

Although some factors of learning virtually have tremendously impacted students in a negative way, factors that contributed to an average student’s schedule was not seen to be as packed as it is now in school.

Time. Time is something that we can’t take back and this gets modified depending on how well we use and take advantage of it on a daily basis. For students, schedules regarding their time in person and doing extracurriculars gets chaotic at times.

Students often focus so much on their time trying to make themselves perfect on paper to shape their careers. However, to most colleges and higher organizations, you are more than what is written on paper.  

Yes, the process of being able to manage your schedule along with your time is challenging, which is what Sushil continues to notice. Managing her hectic schedule has impacted her sleep, which is essential for her functioning. 

“Students are expected to do so much like I get it, everyone is doing it, but it’s like at the same time, everyone’s doing it. Everyone has a really straining schedule. College is right around the corner and it’s like everyone wants to be at their highest potential. They are applying to so many programs, there are so many different extracurriculars,” Sushil says.

She recognizes Monday as one of the first days of the week and how her schedule correlates to the amount of sleep she continues to get. 

She adds, “For example, I have track, I have after-school, I go to the gym- just to shape my future. I am also applying to programs and the application itself takes a lot of work and time out of schoolwork itself. It’s really hard just because of my schedule everyday- like on Monday’s it’s horrible… 

I guess it’s optional, but it’s really not when you think about it because students are expected to do just so much. On Mondays, I have school and then go right to track and turn to the gym and I come home at 9, but then I have to eat and then I have to do so much homework. This is only Monday- which is the day we just got out of the weekend, so I am exhausted. So I don’t get to sleep until really late.” 

Furthermore, she considers her social life to be another component that conflicts with her schedule because managing the time to be able to do both coursework and building relationships with her friends becomes challenging. 

“My schedule is super packed. Sometimes you’re making plans with friends and I feel like I’m taking away my social life sometimes. And it’s like, how do I make time for my friends and sleep at night?” 

Trends among students experiencing what Arpita has confirmed is seen throughout many individuals and continues to rise among those who cannot find the balance to work on their academics and find time for other things as well.

According to Northgate High School Sentinel, “According to the American Psychological Association, most high schoolers are reporting higher daily levels of stress than adults, and lower levels of sleep. High schoolers are also reporting that they believe they are having much higher stress levels than is healthy for a teenager.”

Most may think that being an adult is one of the most important roles in life that comes forth with many stressful encounters, which yes, is mostly accurate. However, many seem to neglect students and when and what their roles of life come into play especially in the present world. 

Teacher Brittney Klimowicz, who teaches Chemistry and the Human Microbiome module, sympathizes with students’ schedules and the unknown of the future because of the current present world. 

She mentions: “I remember being a student in high school too and preparing for big tests or before the SAT’s and those were very nerve wracking experiences because they had such a big impact on things like what colleges you went to and your GPA. So, it felt like it had very real world, very future consequences. 

What has been really interesting about the pandemic is that even universities and colleges are rethinking the roles of standardized tests and how they create their admissions guideline, and what they are really looking forward to in a student. I think it will be interesting over the next few years to see how that stuff changes… I think that we are in an interesting time in education.” 

Taking into account what certain consequences will have on students and their overall achievement, parental pressure can be consistent with the ways in which students lose motivation to do their even further discouraging work. 

Dr. Nathan Snyder, an iSchool English teacher, displays his insights about general pressure and responsibilities that students encounter not only in academics, but rather their own personal and future lives: 

“School is meant to prepare you for what’s coming next into your life and to help you better handle what you are going to experience as an adult and stress is a part of human life, period… 

Things do not slow down after high school. Things do not slow down after college. Things don’t slow down probably when you retire. I mean, you are still doing this stuff so, seeing stress as a part of your life and learning how to handle that appropriately is maybe a healthy way to approach it.” 

Taking into consideration the pressure that comes along with not only a student, but what a human experiences in relation with the tasks that are enforced and implemented into their day, is a common and constant thing that will always continue to be reinforced. 

Over and over again, students are influenced by their parents. Parental involvement; a subject that has demonstrated to be a key factor in the reasons why some students are stressed.

Continued phrases after phrases and expectations after expectations are not only expected from a student at school, but from their own personal lives. 

Sophomore Tara Silverman relates not only to academic pressure but agrees with the parental pressure that parents enforce on their children. She understands that this can be different from individual to individual on the account if this helps them constantly do their best.

She says, “I do experience parental pressure. Mostly just parents being on my back about low grades in classes and or missing assignments. It’s difficult to deal with, especially because it just adds unwanted pressure. It’s really draining to have on top of every other factor of stress…

I honestly think finding motivation to really do work is like a really big thing for me, at least and for a lot of people. Just making yourself- like I know you think like, just sit down and do your work but like, it’s really not that easy just making yourself do an assignment especially if it’s difficult.” 

She came to the conclusion that overall parental pressure does not help her personally, although this can benefit others because someone is constantly checking over them. 

But what does she do to help this situation? Does she reach out to teachers? Does she talk to her parents? 

Tara acknowledges, “And I kind of cope with it I guess. I kind of just tell her [parent] I am going to get it done at some point. I am not going to end the quarter with like a thirty in one of my classes. Obviously I am going to talk to my teacher and correct stuff about that.” 

Coping naturally with parental pressure can be staggering and immense. The end of the quarter has mostly shown to be one of the most stressful times, she recalls, so she takes initiative so that she is not failing a course, for example. 

She further states: “I feel like letting parents know that, like you have it under control and you have to sit down on your own time. I know a lot of times we don’t really want to control but I think assuring that like you’re going to  make it up, you’re going to talk to your teacher and just do what you can and let them know that it’s not helping having their pressure on your back 24/7. It’s only doing harm.” 

It is very imperative that students take the time to talk to their parents about how they can help their academic pressure rather than harm without realizing it. However, this depends on their own personal relations with their parents as a whole and how often they are present. 

Because of high expectations, parent pressure, student schedule, and loss of motivation that a student undergoes, this can result in many negative long term effects. 

A student’s mental health may depend on not only stress in school but also community-related issues. There have been more constant trends and statistics to prove that the present generation is battling strong and deep struggles. 

In fact, according to the Stanford Medicine, “Sleep deprivation increases the likelihood teens will suffer myriad negative consequences, including an inability to concentrate, poor grades, drowsy-driving incidents, anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide and even suicide attempts.” 

This is not only something that was mentioned by students such as Sushil, Aktar and Silverman, but rather a national issue that corresponds to being a student and the role that they play. 

Depending on the different policies and regulations seen across different schools, many students continue to have similar incidents where it is a necessity to reach for help because of the rapid increase on how they are assessed on their performance, unlike their mental health. 

The emphasis on the fact that this situation is not just a community based one, but rather an issue where every single student can relate to is significant. 

Stress among K-12 Students vary from those who are among College and university Students. According to 50 Current Student Stress Statistics: 2020/2021 Data, Analysis & Predictions, specific data is shown: 

(Stress Among K-12 Students Statistics): 

• “Seven out of ten teens in the U.S. (between 13 and 17 years old) have named anxiety or depression as a major problem among their peers in the community.
• 75% of U.S. high school students expressed boredom, anger, sadness, fear, or stress while in school.
• On a 10-point scale, where normal values for adults are 3.8, American teens rated their stress rate at an average score of 5.8.
• Three quarters (75%) of American high schoolers and half of middle schoolers described themselves as “often or always feeling stressed” by schoolwork.” 

(Stress Among College and University students): 

• “40% of college students in the U.S. admit to feeling inadequately-rested five out of seven days a week.
• One in four American college students indicate that lack of sleep has affected their academic performance in a negative way: lower grades, missed a paper or project deadline, or had to withdraw from class.
• U.S. students who sleep six or fewer hours a night have a lower Grade Point Average (GPA) than those who get eight or more.
• 45% of American college students claimed to undergo “more than average stress,” while 33% of students reported “average stress” and 12.7% saying it is  “tremendous stress.” Students who reported “no stress” or “less than average stress” combined for 9% total.

This is simply horrifying. 

The numbers continue to increase and there are major effects on students due to the fact that they keep rising. With all of the world concerns that students have experienced for the past year or so, it has become extremely difficult for students to prioritize their mental health.

Gen-Z students are in a quest for external academic validation and their worth, which often comes with the price of losing opportunities for connection with others and themselves. 

Furthermore, Stress in America report states: 

“Going into this academic year, more than 8 in 10 (82%) said uncertainty about what the 2020-21 school year will be like was causing them stress. Now looking ahead, more than 2 in 3 Gen Z adults in college (67%) say the coronavirus pandemic makes planning for their future feel impossible.” 

Students are grappling with the changes made to the education system, and this has become an aspect not only causing stress, but in connection with ways in which one can handle mental health illnesses. 

Not a single student should have to feel the future being impossible, period. Without support from schools and the ways in which they implement strategies to help alleviate a students mental health, students are lost when making future decisions regarding their careers. 

The NYC iSchool was one of the many high schools in the city to consider students’ mental health as a serious issue. The school has adjusted the ways in which they may do certain things, like revising the mastery grading policy for this year. 

Assistant Principal Michelle Leimsider gives her insights on why she believes the iSchool in particular has helped students so far in the present school year:

“We do that because we were trying to move more towards that, because we do feel like a students grade should actually reflect what their able to show that they know and it’s true, that there are times where students are able to show that they understand the material, but they, for a variety of reasons are unable to do the productivity or they just don’t get the productivity done…

And, we didn’t feel like it was fair for their overall grade about what they learned in the class to be penalized because of productivity and so we see the productivity assignments as the things that are necessary- the building blocks, to get students to be able to show mastery of the material, which is what we think is the most important.” 

Ms. Leimsider emphasizes that productivity assignments are essential for students as a result of finalizing their cooperation on mastery based skills that they end up achieving throughout the quarter. 

She further states, “Our hope and I think that it happens at varying degrees and I think that it’s a process is  that students realize that completing the productivity work actually helps them when it comes time for the mastery assignments because the mastery assignments use the productivity work and is building them to get to the point where they can show mastery.” 

As a result, Sushil agrees and has seen how this helped her so far in this school year. She acknowledges this by saying: 

“I genuinely really like the new  mastery policy just because it gives me a lot of time to mainly focus on my mastery and the grade that I could do on it and especially with all the teachers letting us all retake it and do corrections. It’s also good because now I can focus on what’s really important, which is like the very end of the whole unit…

Now that iSchool is mainly doing mastery, I like that because it literally shows what actually matters, like homework does matter obviously but it should be based on the completion or like how much you tried, not like on how correct you were because we just learned it and it shouldn’t be evaluated like how a test was.” 

 Not only did the iSchool make adjustments to the way in which students are assessed, but administration also takes into consideration what initiatives help students’ academics and significant factors that play into that role, such as getting to school on time. 

In accordance with The Epidemic of Anxiety Among Today’s Students, young adults are the most anxious than ever, based on mental-health surveys in today’s world. 

Because of this, iSchool continues to provide ways in which opportunities meet students’ interests. 

Having the opportunity to go out for lunch has always been something that iSchool has initiated. Because of such an initiative, it is strategically used to be effective towards students’ time management and how much education they are receiving based on how present they are. 

Ms. Leimsider continues to say,  “This [going out for lunch] was something that happened I want to say in like year 3, and we noticed that students were coming to school really late… And, the lateness at our school once we instituted the policy drastically decreased so the number of students who were showing up to school on time drastically increased, which we were happy about because we think it’s important that students get here on time.” 

In order to ensure that students were coming to school on time, administration took into consideration what they can do to help, rewarding students in the long run. 

Sushil recalls how she thinks the way that they choose their initiatives is smart because that is one of the very top things she thinks about when not making it to school on time. 

Principal Isora Bailey reflects on the ways that she chooses these in specific correlation with prioritizing students. 

“They are based on meeting the students where they’re at, so like thinking about what’s in the best interest of students. So we do make choices about what helps the students the most and we have to think broadly, you know. What helps the majority, and it’s not perfect. But, in general we put the students first.” 

And so much more. 

Independent periods are not considered a reward for students at the iSchool, but having this implemented as part of students’ schedules also helps them regarding their academics and how much they have to manage. 

Although assignments might become chaotic, Aktar agrees on why these periods are beneficial. 

“I actually love independent periods because they let me do work and actually have time in school to do the work… 

 But at times when you have a lot of mastery, it does help because it’s like I have this hour within my schooling to do the work…I have found it to be something that does help me complete masteries on time because I have that extra segment in my day.” 

The iSchool does a great job when considering the amount of things that a student is piled with everyday, whether that includes assignments or challenges between their personal lives. They want their students to succeed and have amazing futures although that can come with constant stress all over the place. 

Ensuring that students are rewarded for being present in school has not only shown higher attendance, but has taught students to manage their time, specifically commuting to school. 

As reported by Students under pressure, about one-third of the U.S. college students struggle when functioning their daily routines in the last 12 months. Not only this, but examined data from 125,000 students have shown that students experience depression and overwhelming anxiety:

Taking into account the percentages of students who show that school is a major stressor, this has continued to rise especially in the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a substantial impact on the lives of All and not just students in particular. 

The disruption of education, the economy, and health care has had major groups, including students, to feel various emotions especially when regards to school and how well they are performing. 

In the majority of schools across the United States,  the implementation of guidance counselors is significant because they play a role in ensuring that students have successful educational experiences through the support of social-emotional support regarding their academics and personal lives. 

Guidance Counselor Lizzette Colon approaches students in a couple of factors who may be struggling with their mental health. 

She says, “Number one, teachers are my first line of defense because a teacher may often notice that a student’s academics have declined in some way or that their energy levels have seemed to have declined… 

So, having good communication with teachers is super important because I have to rely on them to report things because I can’t very well sit and go through Jupiter Grades for 468 students… sometimes students also refer themselves…so they might reach out to me in some capacity.”

Although she has not really worked with students who ask for career opportunity advice, she is willing to help in as many aspects as she can for her community. 

She states, “Not that many [worked with students who ask for career opportunity advice]. Sometimes with certain students I might do an interest inventory with them and that’s often for students who are feeling unsure about what comes after high-school… 

They know that they have to go to high school because they just have to but they are not really sure about: Do I go to college? Do I get a job? Do I want a career? So, oftentimes I may say, “look it’s okay at 15, 16, 17, 18 to not know what you want to do  and so we do an online interest inventory just to get an idea of what pops up.”

Furthermore, even though some students may not feel comfortable talking to her, she has established her relationships with the majority of students. 

There are very few schools in the nation that show how well a guidance counselor helps students and their struggles. Many statistics support the fact that the majority of students may not feel comfortable when expressing their needs to a counselor which is why it is important for counselors to be able to establish their roles within their school’s system. 

In fact, The Epidemic of Anxiety Among Today’s Students continues to further state that: “Even as the mental health issues worsen each year, the national average is 491 students per counselor. Only three states in the nation meet the overall recommended ratio of 250-to-1 for students-to-school-counselor.”

Although some students may find people among their school community to lean on their support, taking into consideration those students who do not reach out to certain sources is just as significant. 

So, what happens now?

Obviously, mental health is going to be an issue no matter the circumstances depending on who specifically the individual is. 

Through the support of mindfulness breaks and mental health days, we can try to alleviate pressure that a student faces on a daily basis for an average of 10 months. 

Not necessarily getting rid of this pressure, because it will always be around, but finding the right resources even if an individual does not reach out is very much significant.  

If we input enough motivation and understanding towards this topic, the long term effects, which can result in suicides, sleep deprivation and negative mental health illnesses rates, may decrease. 

We must find healthy ways to cope with academic pressures and sleep deprivation.

To begin with, students must reflect on their  hectic schedules to be able to prioritize the tasks that they strive to accomplish and the amount of time that they get  to rest, to come to the realization that having access to support and guidance is vital throughout the journey of their mental health and their self growth. 

Over and above this, it is imperative that educational systems are aware of what students may be feeling especially after the pandemic that puts more unwanted stress in correspondence with high expectations. Because of the many factors that play a role into this, it becomes jeopardizing to students for how well they perform and manage their mental and social standing. 

Mental health days is a subject that should be talked about more. 

Why? Because sometimes having a break from school can be welcomed although there are breaks offered throughout the school year. 

Therapist and parent Tonya Lester mentions, “A lot of it is good habits, like we talked about before, prioritizing your own slate, prioritizing getting outside and getting outside, and focusing on your friends, specifically in-person friendships.” 

Incorporating mental health days can allow students to focus on other important aspects of their lives such as self-care and the friendships/relationships they have built outside of school, without having to worry about the academic part of their lives that consumes most students’ thoughts everyday. 

And this can be implemented in a variety of ways. Mentioned by the iSchool community, there can be days where we focus our shift in school on mental health during advisory; a scheduled period of time where teachers meet with a small group of students. 

Your advisor, in most cases, is meant to be your guide through your four years of high school and one of the many people that students can reach out to. These advisories almost always have the potential of transforming into one of the many families created within the iSchool community. 

Furthermore, we can take strategies that help mental health become a subject that is talked about more in the school day. 

These changes will help empower them in trying their best and building motivation for the rest of their academic careers.

Just like the iSchool, other schools, nationally, have to reconsider their policies and the ways certain programs are implemented. After reviewing, they must come to a conclusion whether certain things are impacting their students in a negative way or what they can do to help students in the future. 

Unrealistic standards are often presented on a daily basis and this becomes something that not only school districts have to consider, but beyond. 

Considering the events that happened in the midst of the COVID pandemic, it opened the eyes of many different sources on how academic pressure was something that constantly affected students. However, it shouldn’t take a pandemic to realize this, so going forward we must listen and understand student’s voices.

According to the University of New Hampshire, self-care is a form of one of the many coping strategies one can take because of mental health stress. They mention that “It’s important to take care of ourselves. Forgetting to eat or eating pizza and chips for dinner every night depletes our bodies of energy and nutrients. Staying up all night studying or sleeping all day makes concentrating on studies difficult. Staying in our dorm rooms all day and night, not going outside, and ignoring friends keeps us alone and isolated.” 

Knowing when to stop doing assignments and do relaxing techniques, or even go to sleep, instead is crucial to helping you prepare for the next day. 

As school resumes, it is important to make sure that students are getting constant support even if it may look like they do not need it. Knowing that they have the support without necessarily having to tell the teacher, for example, can further help them in a much more positive way. 

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most people had been accustomed to the usage of their phones for such long periods. This only worsened the detrimental addiction that some people have towards their phones today, especially focusing on social media applications and ways in which it is present throughout a person’s day-to-day life.

The majority of people were stuck at home with the desire to see their friends, family, and loved ones, but of course, this was deemed impossible at the time. The only option left would be to communicate with others virtually and the only way they were able to stay up to date about what others were up to during the quarantine period was through social media. 

Quarantine began in March for the NYC iSchool, along with most schools in New York, which completely forced everyone to put the world on pause and have to think about what the world would look like in the upcoming months. 

Most students, unfortunately, had to press pause on their learning and the friendships they had just developed or had already developed. They went from seeing and talking to their friends every single day to not being able to see them anymore. Of course, there were such things as FaceTime, Snapchat, Instagram, iMessage, etc, to ease the hardships that came with adapting to the new and unknown method of education: virtual/remote instruction, however, it never seemed to become much easier. 

During remote instruction in New York – and the majority of public schools nationwide – many students were not mandated to turn their cameras on, although it was highly encouraged to do soOftentimes, it was understood that they had their separate lives at home, which did not have to be broadcasted all the time. This meant that for a year and a half, students were not worried about teachers catching them using and being distracted by their phones during their class sessions. 

It was extremely easy to be able to leave their computing devices laying around their homes while being faced with constant distractions at home such as social media, family members, napping, watching their siblings, and having other responsibilities. 

A science teacher at the NYC iSchool, Kristen Brown, mentioned that “Classroom management wasn’t bad because there were no disruptions, you were just staring at black boxes on a screen, but you had no idea if the kids were fully engaged.”

One of the most difficult aspects of remote learning, for teachers, was the question of whether or not their students were actively paying attention to their lectures. Students had more freedom to do as they pleased compared to in-person instruction. For eighteen months of their lives, they have been more accustomed to using their phones whenever they wanted and wherever they wanted without the constant reminder to stay off their phones. 

On top of this, students never had to face boredom the way they did during quarantine. Humans have created a false definition for connectedness without actually having to connect to humans to understand them on a personal level, which gets in the way of creating honest and meaningful relationships in the future. It isn’t real; it isn’t authentic. 

As humans, it is difficult to stay hyper-aware of how connected you have become to faceless electronic devices that, to the world, seem to fulfill basic human emotional needs even though there is an alternative. There is a world that exists beyond these devices that humans seem to be so interconnected with. 

To simplify this, “It’s in moments like that where it feels like the world is becoming a dystopian novel and people can’t break away from their phone, to be around the human that they are in front of,” as English teacher, Thomas Jones, puts it. 

This is when and how the addiction began.  

Addiction comes in many forms and can likewise have long-lasting effects on students. After transitioning back to in-person instruction, there has been a clear struggle to adapt to the fact that students no longer have the freedom to do as they please and will now have to learn how to take school, in general, more seriously. 

A bilingual guidance counselor and SEL (Social Emotional Learning) Coordinator at Central Queens Academy, Sermania Arias, brings up the point that “Students spend a long amount of hours using social media. This can distract them from doing their homework and studying. One trend I’ve noticed is students tend to go to sleep pretty late from all the scrolling they do all night. Next thing you know it is 1 am and students are still on their phones during a school night.”

Unfortunately, it has become the new “normal” to stay up for longer than many of us can manage, often resulting in less than three hours of sleep a night. There are so many factors that can affect sleep schedules, however, cell phone usage is usually one of the most common. They can become such a huge distraction to most students as they work on their assignments, due to the feeling of being compelled to check their phones even if they necessarily don’t have anything to check.  

Junior, Eliza Taub explains how difficult it is to maintain focus at school because of her phone: 

“I can’t multitask. Like that’s impossible. It’s impossible for the brain to do that. So if I’m on my phone and I’m scrolling through Instagram, I’m not actually understanding what my teacher’s saying. So then like after a five-minute, 10-minute lecture, and I’ve been sitting on my phone the whole time, when we’re given an assignment to do I’m unprepared for it and I’m like, wait, what am I supposed to be doing?” 

Taub isn’t the only one who experiences this sense of distraction within the school environment. It is quite common for some students to easily find the necessity to constantly check their social media platforms. 

A student at the City College of New York, Gabriel Alvarez explains: “Social media does affect mental health because it makes us addicted to the release of dopamine we get when we receive a like, a follow request or an incoming message from your special someone, but you just have to be mature about it.”

Brown adds: “Teenager’s limbic system and their Ventral tegmental Area is more sensitive to dopamine and they haven’t made the string neural connections to the prefrontal cortex that assesses risk and reward, so it’s hard for them to say it’s not good for me to keep looking at my phone during class. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that causes euphoria and a craving for more. This explains why phone notifications can stimulate dopamine in the brain.“  

Whenever a person receives a notification, such as a like or a mention, the brain releases dopamine, which travels through reward pathways and makes them feel good about themselves. For very little work, social media offers an unending supply of instant rewards in the shape of other people’s attention. This positive reinforcement rewires the brain, making users crave likes, retweets, and emoticon replies.

Naturally, humans tend to have a natural human desire for a lot of things, not because they need them, but because they would like them to fulfill something that they currently do not have or have enough of. It seems weird to think about social media as a human desire, however, it is the communities, relationships, and friendships that humans seek and justify as necessary. 

Society has progressed because of social media for the worst, and the damage has become irreversible. 

Students currently live an altered reality where it is common to encounter unrealistic expectations, the need for validation, and the constant comparison between themselves and people who spend hours to look good in order to give millions of teenagers a false sense of what “natural beauty” truly is, completely destabilizing their mental capacity to accept themselves for who they are.

Student at Borough of Manhattan Community College, Michelle Herrera explains: “As I am scrolling down on my Instagram feed, of course, I come across other people’s accounts, people my age, and/or people whom I know through mutual friends, I see that they are having fun at parties or at Disneyland. Or I see pretty girls enjoying themselves in Cancun, Mexico on nice beaches, only wishing I was there, wishing I looked like them, etc. Instagram would just make me feel two times worse compared to what I was originally feeling.”

Comparisons are a natural element of human cognition and can be beneficial to the process of self-improvement. When humans compare themselves to others, they gain insight regarding what they may desire, the paths they may want to take, and the people they want to become. 

This can, however, lead to a great deal of psychological distress. Squandering valuable energy focusing on other people’s lives rather than their own can easily keep them caught up with how to be someone else rather than how to be themselves. 

A decade ago, children had the world’s grasp in their hands; there was no limit to their imaginations nor was there the constant worry about how other people would see them. They were not introduced to social media at such an early age simply because it was not an environment created for them. 

Today’s generation is rapidly being introduced to social media and its varying impacts on self-esteem, academic performance, and engagement in their day-to-day lives. But then again, there is the obvious question of whether or not younger generations should be stimulated through the engagement of social media with their classmates. 

It’s ironic. Parents do their best to keep their children away from things like alcohol and drugs, as they motivate them to stay away from such dangerous and addictive things, yet they are allowed to freely roam the never-ending atmosphere of social media. 

A parent, Roxana Soriano, explains, “My youngest was allowed to use social media when she entered the fifth grade because we are living in a time where it is completely indispensable for young adults to use social media. My eldest was allowed to use social media until the age of thirteen because the circumstances were different.” 

Social media is the outlet for communication between younger generations. Because the majority of them have never had to live without social media, they may believe it is their sole resource. 

According to Social media apps are ‘deliberately’ addictive to users – BBC News: “Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on these things to try and make it maximally addicting.”

Have you ever wondered why Tik Tok shows you a video about something you had just been talking about with a friend or why Facebook can predict the type of posts you would be into? There are millions of algorithms that social media platforms utilize to make your interactions as engaging as possible. Students, nationwide, are constantly falling within these algorithms which further their addiction even further.  

Castillo mentions, “For Tik Tok, it’s more about entertainment. I don’t post videos of myself, but I use it as a form of entertainment. I would say  I do get distracted and time passes by really fast without me noticing. And I just spent hours or more like, I spend such a long time on it.”

By remaining trendy, relevant, and exciting, Tik Tok demands your full, undivided attention. Whether you realize it or not, your behavior is tracked within the app to ensure that the content you are receiving matches up with what you seem to enjoy. 

“As quickly as social media has insinuated itself into politics, the workplace, home life and elsewhere, it continues to evolve at lightning speed, making it tricky to predict which way it will morph next,” as mentioned by The Impact of Social Media: Is it Irreplaceable? Social media has proved to be a never-ending source of evolution, produced to capture the attention of almost everyone who interacts with it. 

It is obvious. Social media has become an important (and, to a large degree, inevitable) component of our lives. 

As the article How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers, puts it: “But when friendship is conducted online and through texts, kids are doing this in a context stripped of many of the most personal—and sometimes intimidating—aspects of communication. It’s easier to keep your guard up when you’re texting, so less is at stake. You aren’t hearing or seeing the effect that your words are having on the other person. Because the conversation isn’t happening in real-time, each party can take more time to consider a response. No wonder 1 kids say calling someone on the phone is “too intense”—it requires more direct communication, and if you aren’t used to that it may well feel scary.”

There is an obvious difference between maintaining and developing relationships. The most obvious distinction is that you may meet a lot of individuals in the online community who share your interests, and it’s easier to learn about them since you, or the other person, can easily hide behind their screens as they create their “perfect” social media personas.

Social media and phone usage has become a fully integrated part of our lives, it seems impossible to think of a life without it. Is it possible?

Principal Isora Bailey points out the following:  “Not having you use a phone is probably a bad idea because in four years you’re going to have to, right? Everyone uses a phone; it’s a tool in our society. And so what we have to do is teach you how to use it and use it responsibly and when to put it away. Ignoring it is not helpful… It’s also a tool that kids need in the real world.” 

People with their heads down looking at a bright screen may be seen almost everywhere, typically absorbed by the infinite communication, knowledge, and pleasure that an electronic device delivers. You may enjoy the best of both worlds if you manage your social media use responsibly.

Social media and phone usage has become a fully integrated part of our lives, it seems impossible to think of a life without it. Is it possible?

The short answer? Yes. 

A realistic reality that most of us find difficult to fathom is life without social media. We are rarely conscious of the power that language holds through social media platforms. 

It enables us to communicate with people all around the world to define our identities, to research and defend our human rights, and to participate in all aspects of our society. The more capable you are at communicating, the more self-sufficient you will become, and the more you will be able to advocate for yourself and everyone around you. 

On the other hand, as a society, such a non-authentic way of living has been built. It is time to detach, focus on ourselves, and reconnect with the people and things that exist beyond our devices. If every student in the country quit social media for about a month, most students would be able to recognize how unnecessary it has become. 

If students find that their relationships with social media are harming you, trying a “digital detox,” or a period of time without using it can be extremely beneficial. A social media detox, whether for a day, a week, or a month, is strongly suggested by psychologists since it can positively improve brain function and make you feel happy. 

Jones states, “I really think somebody’s gotta be planting up that voice in our heads, we have to be there for each other. Like this isn’t healthy. This isn’t how you should want to live. You know, like it’s just not real.”

Most students may believe that “social media addiction” does not apply to them, but taking the time to consider how often they check their phone throughout the day can prove how much of a necessity it has become. People have no control over how others act on social media nor do they have control over how their actions affect them. They do, however, have control over whether or not they choose to withstand the harsh and long-term effects of social media.  

Arias ends by saying, “Social media was built more to connect with your friends, families, advertise your business, share the latest news, etc. This is what we wish all to see but then you see others using it to create negative comments about others, cyberbullies, etc. The more social media is used the right way, the better it will be.” 

Ultimately, will students continue to build these unrealistic standards even after high school? Or will administrators and students themselves be willing to recognize what’s at stake here? 

Instead of asking whether or not robots are becoming more like us as humans, it is time to turn the tables and ask how much more evolution it will take for us to become more like them. 

WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN? 

A student undergoes many different expectations and standards that often comes with distractions such as social media, mainly seen during the pandemic and the result of our other pressing world issues. 

Action plans need to take place as soon as possible and be evaluated by not only schools and administration, but also on the students themselves. It is not only up to administrators to advocate for mental health awareness; it is just as vital for students to reflect on their actions and how they can influence their behavior, mood, motivation, etc. Sometimes, it is good to take a step back from work all day long and breathe. 

Learning how to cope and insert strategies into their own personal lives becomes noteworthy to the roles in which they have on a daily basis aside from school itself. 

It is essential that schools prepare themselves for the implementations of helpful resources to help underlying causes that have a connection to having serious and severe cases of mental health illness. 

There are many scenarios to consider when discussing mental health and what it can possibly result in, which mainly come into the component of how successful a student can be when they are fighting a constant battle between managing themselves and their mental-well being. 

Constantly having to choose between yourself or your academics can often become exhausting. And in most cases, students choose academics over themselves. 

Without relaxing and taking care of their mental health, most students are unfortunately faced with the aftermath regarding their mental health well being. 

This can look different from person to person, but in most, extreme and severe cases, students may end up committing suicides. They are not only battling a battle from school but how the world views them on social media; an upcoming distraction constantly. 

Growing up and maturing means much more than what is reflected through a series of meaningless likes, comments and re-shares. Humans simply can not identify themselves if they are constantly making an effort to transform themselves into the absolute perfect daughter, son, brother, sister, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc. 

When it comes to students, oftentimes there is no real division between their social lives and their academic lives. It seems as though most  students repeatedly bounce between who they are outside of school and who they are trying to become within the academic world and then end up forgetting who is who in the midst of the process. 

It is not simply about easing how much homework a school may give or how much they restrict phone use. Simply ignoring these issues will not make them go away, and neither will an easy-fix. Change is possible, you just have to be open to the idea. 

In the words of author and therapist Lisa Olivera, “Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.” 

Lester points out: “I think de-stigmatization of making your mental health a priority and making it ‘not-embarrassing’ that we struggle a little bit is important. That is just a normal part of life. Everyone  has ups and downs and that does not mean that you are not a strong person or that you aren’t resilient.”

Our society has created a stigma surrounding realizing and accepting that you may need someone to talk to and the ability to ask for help whenever you need it. 

This makes it difficult. 

Lester adds, “I will say, as a therapist, I have never been so busy. I have never turned away more clients. All of the therapists whom I know, who I think are good, are full. People definitely needed more support and I think there’s not enough affordable mental health support as I think that there are not enough therapists for what everyone went through this year through the pandemic.”

As a country, there is a clear necessity for mental health professionals who can support people of all ages. Unfortunately, many people go on with their days knowing they may need some type of support, but it simply isn’t available, leaving them with the only option to reach out to their loved ones, which isn’t always true for everyone.  

There are some people who need advice or guidance, but shy away from it, and then there are people who are aware of the necessity and do not have access to it. This creates a perpetuating cycle of the lack of guidance that they may need to pick themselves up from the hardships of the real world. 

Most people, especially students, are expected  to wait for professional advice, only worsening their health as a whole. Actions must be provided now, not when their mental conditions begin to visibly get worse.