Social Media Wreaking Havoc on Young Adults

While visiting our daughter and attending the Black Swamp Art Festival in Bowling Green, Ohio this weekend, this street chalk art struck me.

This artwork hit me me with the message of how younger people are challenged with social media with the caption above the image reading "Social Media gets to me" with a very tearful media user. This artwork reflects what I have read about the last several months - youth and the angst caused by social media.

Current State of Health - Mental Health

In my study and analysis for the past year, I discovered a long list of physical attributes where the US has fallen behind other peer nations. Although those statistics are sobering, equally troubling is the state of American mental health. In particular, the high degree of depression and unhappiness in our younger generations.

Gallup and Newsmax/TIPP Poll

According to Gallup , those aged 18 to 29 (34.3%) and 30 to 44 (34.9%) have significantly greater depression diagnosis rates in their lifetime than those older than 44.

Similarly, this Newsmax/TIPP Poll reflects a similar pattern in the mental health of young adults.

World Happiness Report

In this year’s?World Happiness Report , which ranks 143 countries across measures of life satisfaction, the U.S. fell eight spots from No. 15 to No. 23 on the list. It’s the first time the U.S. has not been considered one of the top-20 happiest countries in the report’s 20-year history.

Researchers identified a troubling culprit for America’s precipitous fall: young people. While Americans older than age 60 ranked No. 10 for happiness, those younger than 30 ranked 62nd??— a stark generational split.

Human Innovation has Outpaced Human Biological Evolution

In my analysis of the last century of study of US health, I argue that "Human Innovation has outpaced Human Biological Evolution" not only in the abundance of food, transportation and physical labor (vs knowledge workers), but also in the human brain's capacity to handle all of the information that at are in our literal fingertips.

Over the last 50 years, the developments of communication technology has been significant and one could argue that our human evolutionary brains are not hardwired for all this change and information at the ready.

The Anxious Generation - "Phone-Based Childhood"

According to social-psychologist Jonathan Haidt , he proposes that "play-based childhood" of the 1980's has been replaced with "phone-based childhood" of the early 2010's. His arguments are very concerning to the development of our youth.

Haidt presents in his book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Youth and Employer Costs

While the depression and anxiety may seem to be an inherently personal matter, the facts are that this problem is significant for individuals, friends, family, and employers. While the individual costs of depression and anxiety are very high, I wanted to focus on how this epidemic hits employers for the audience of LinkedIn.

According to Telus Health study , revealed that U.S. workers with diagnosed depression lose 51 working days in productivity per year. The Index also found that 27% of workers say better support for their well-being is more important than a 10% increase in salary.??

From an employer-based insurance, it is noteworthy in the Tellus study suggests that workers under 40 are nearly three times more likely than workers over 50 to value psychological services most.

North of $47.6B in Costs

To put a final point on this, Gallup Poll from 2022 estimates that the depression/anxiety leading to missed work is estimated to cost the economy $47.6 billion annually in lost productivity.? It should be noted that Gallup Poll estimated 12 days of unplanned absences. If the figure is closer to 51 working days of productivity lost, we are estimating $200B in lost productivity.

This article was framed around a post by Stacy Mays and the poor mental health state of high schoolers in America.

?#healthcare #medicine #health #future #mentalhealth

Joseph W. Sunderman is an Intelligence Analyst/Strategist that is a student of understanding the Current State of the US Health and its impact for the next decade. I developed the thesis over several months for Directions Research Group.? Upon completion of boiling the ocean on the topic and created an impeccable deliverable, revenue shortfalls and project delays led to my role being eliminated as part of a budget cut.

?In the past, Joe spent seven years at medical device giant Ethicon (division of Johnson & Johnson) with the most recent role as US Regional Manager of Strategic Insights and Pricing.? In his seven years at JNJ, he received recognition for his servant leadership, where he was a stand out in performance by being a top 10% recipient of Encore and Inspire Awards over multiple years.? Dozens and dozens of accolades from contributors to senior leaders for his collaborative work.? Prior to Ethicon, Joe has had a wide variety of experiences in medical claims, banking, publishing, and retail.? He began his career at Schaeffer's Investment Research as a financial analyst, where he was ranked by Bridge Information Systems as one of the top 10 market analysts for three straight years for his commentary and stock picks found in Schaeffer's Daily Bulletin. Joe has been published in the Market Pulse Journal and Chartpoint and his market comments have been printed in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Dow Jones News Wire, and Reuters. Also, Joe has made appearances on Bloomberg television.