News of the Conneticut Shootings cleared worldwide news schedules yesterday. Before this, the UK government decided that an automatic internet block on viewing porn at the ISP level, forcing those wishing to view adult images to opt in, was impractical. The BBC has the story here along with the historical story crawl.
The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), launched in 1994 by Scott Berkowitz in association with Tori Amos, 17 years ago as of the middle of the week. To see the events lined up to mark the anniversary the link is here but there’s a general campaign asking for a donation of USD 17….
Peter Connelly’s mother Tracy, who successfully blamed her boyfriend and his brother for the killing of her child, will stay in prison after being ruled a continuing danger to the public after five years. She reported her own fears about revenge attacks earlier this summer if she receives parole. The Mirror has the story here….
In a fairly quiet note last week, the investigation into accusations by two former Syracuse University ball boys against former assistant coach Bernie Fine was dropped, without any charges being filed. Coming on the heels of the Jerry Sandusky case, this seemingly similar case got lots of national media attention in the US when the…
I think that second quote is really the key. We’ve seen studies that are reported as showing that kids who use social media get more depression and anxiety, but those studies do not address the question of whether there’s any proof that the causality is in that direction and not the other. In other words, do teens who use social media a lot develop depression, or do depressed teens use social media more. This study seems to indicate it’s the latter. As we continue with a lot of social distancing, and activities being canceled and in person gatherings are very limited, we know everyone will be relying more on social media to stay connected, so this is an important question, and I think what this study, and others, really shows us is that there are ways to use social media as a positive influence on our mental health, and a way to use it that will not be a positive influence on our mental health.
In the physical world, we have these same choices. Do we interact with people who are toxic? Do we spend all of our time comparing ourselves to others? Do we isolate? Or do we find out tribe, our group of supportive friends/family that can interact socially in ways that help our mental health?
We all make those same choices on social media, but the key difference here is that if we simply don’t choose, and make no effort to make conscious decisions about who we follow and interact with, social network algorithms will make the decision for us. Anyone already struggling with mental health is maybe more likely to not spent much time thinking about these things, and just let the app show them what it wants to show them, and that is not necessarily going to be good for our anxiety. Especially right now.
So, if you find yourself feeling more anxious, angry, irritated, etc. every time you hop on Twitter or Instagram, maybe instead of just being that way, spend some time thinking about who you follow, and what they are bringing in to your life?
For any of my social media using readers, can you share some of your favorite positive accounts that you interact with to HELP your mental health?
The acceptance speech from the BAFTAs, which was pulled from Youtube last week, has been re-hosted officially on the official site for the documentary itself, where, ahead of any second, more commercial DVD release, you may still view the film or just comment on the speech and/or interview already featured at the BAFTA website. The…
First off, this is incredibly sad. There’s no other way to react to this story. Secondly, this also illustrates just what a problem the world currently has with addiction. There are far, far too many people self-medicating because they cannot get any other form of help, whether that is because of a lack of available…
