Mental Health
117 Mental Health and Men
Alyssa Bollmer; Camden Souther; Maddie Elmore; Katelyn Cooper; and Ella Kiefner
Introduction
The stigma about men’s mental health is one that is detrimental to society. False beliefs about mental illnesses can lead to tragedies, such as suicide. Suicide is something that sadly, we have to deal with daily. Deborah Stone who wrote “Changes in Suicide” said, “Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States overall, and the second and fourth leading cause among persons aged 10–34 and 35–44 years” (Stone, 2021). If the stigma about men is not broken, these numbers will keep growing. To break the stigma, it is necessary to understand the effects of social media and COVID-19 on men’s mental health, as well as the need for men to ask for help.
Mental Health & Social Media
Mental health is greatly affected by social media. In the modern world today, we are surrounded by different forms of social media and have access to many different types of technology. Social media is a way for people to stay connected, but can also make you feel like you’re disconnected. Social Media has created a new concept known as FOMO (fear of missing out) by allowing everyone to see everyone else’s lives which leads them to feeling alone and upset if they are left out. Most people only associate social media with women, but men are greatly influenced by the media as well. According to Sarah McKenzie from the American Journal of Men’s Health, “Men described feelings of loneliness, sadness, and distress and actively sought emotional support” (McKenzie, 2018). Social media makes men feel as if they are alone and have no outlet (Wilson 2020). This leads to poor mental health and developing mental illnesses. Another way social media negatively impacts users, specifically men, is the unrealistic posts that fill our feeds. The internet has made us believe that the people on social media are perfect and living a better life than us. Men easily find themselves looking at a picture on social media and developing thoughts of loneliness or self-consciousness. One author states that, “Even if you know that images you’re viewing on social media are manipulated, they can still make you feel insecure about how you look or what’s going on in your own life” (Robinson, 2021). Men look online and see pictures of other men that they look nothing like. The insecurities men create for themselves by constantly looking at social media updates, can be detrimental to their mental health. An easy solution would be to delete all social media, but in today’s technological world, that’s easier said than done. Technology allows us to stay connected to friends, family, coworkers, teachers, etc. Completely getting rid of social media is an unconventional way of dealing with this, because most communication is via the internet nowadays. Social Media can also have significant effects on school and the work place. People have become so sucked into their phone