Social media and mental health

What is the issue?

Blue Whale Challenge is said to be the reason behind some recent suicides by teenagers in India.
Huge number of youngsters seeking to play the game may already be prone to mental disorders such as depression or anxiety.

What is Blue whale?

Blue Whale is the most disturbing of trends driven by social media.
Players who sign up are ordered around by an administrator, referred to as the “Blue Whale”.
Players log on at odd hours to receive instructions.
They are told to complete painful, dangerous “tasks” such as carving letters on their bodies for a 50-day period with the final task being death.
The game is already banned in most jurisdictions and police in many nations have issued advisories.

What is the status of mental disorders among urban teens?

A study suggests that mental disorders in the age group of 13-17 years in the urban metros at 13.5%, nearly double the countrywide prevalence (7.3%).

Many teen agers in urban cities has Sub Subclinical depression.
It is a condition in which a person has symptoms which signify a chance of depression but does not meet the criteria for a depressive disorder.
Teenage girls were at a higher risk for experiencing depressive symptoms than boys.
The overall prevalence in India was higher than statistics obtained from similar studies in the West.

What are the reasons for ill -mental health?

Family setup-There is glaring gap between the number of teenagers and their family members.
With nuclear families and lesser interaction with peers, children these days depend just on their parents, who may both be working and busy with their day-to-day lives.
Technological access-Many youngsters get their own smart devices before they hit their teens.
Parents are clueless about how easy it is to bypass ‘parental controls’ installed on these devices.

What are the consequences of these disorders?

Youngsters in the age group of 16-20 were socially withdrawn after getting addicted to online gaming and social media.
Many of these youngsters show a decline in their academic performance and social skills after becoming addicted.
Some may be introverts by nature or may have become withdrawn after getting addicted to the online world.
When parents intervene, these teenagers respond with anger, irritability, and in a few cases they resort to self-harm.
Depression can be a killer, and sometimes even a trivial online game can push someone to a place of no return.

What are the measures taken so far?

The Indian government has done a sensible job by asking all major social media and communication platforms to remove any links pertaining to the Blue Whale challenge.
There are new “positive” challenges such as Happy Blue Whale Challenge and The Pink Whale challenge which help youngsters learn methods to cope with depression and low moods.
Parents are aware to pay greater heed to their children’s social behaviour patterns and online surfing habits, by various efforts by NGO’s and government.

Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic, India’s first technology de-addiction clinic in Bengaluru helps teenagers to get rid of addictive technology.

Source: Business Standard, The Hindu