Kristin
Howerton is a professor of psychology at Vangard University in Southern
California and fulfilled a lifetime goal, speaking at a TED Talk Conference.
Her main thesis of the evening was how we use the internet as ‘zoning out and
logging on.’ She explains how this is how our generation escapes stress, pain
and negative feelings about ourselves… to the point of losing ourselves in the
abyss of the internet and completely forgetting what’s important to us. I think she’s right in saying it is a new way
of escaping immediate problems. However escaping what’s going in our own lives
and getting sucked into the world of social media this may be even more
detrimental to our mental health.
By checking out by plugging in
we’re in a new world of stress and sadness because we’re seeing the happy lives
of other people. The people who boast and post and share images of happy
moments doesn’t exactly make us feel good. We can’t help to compare our lives
to our friends and the people that show up in our news feeds. We’re avoiding
talking with people in real time and in situations that allow to be in the same
room with someone. Avoiding a problem by escaping to the internet or a game is
not healthy, for parents it’s important to be on the lookout if your children are
going through hard times in other areas of their lives and creating a
comforting environment so they feel safe to talk about the greater problem.
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