Podcast

The podcast discusses the issue of cyberbullying and its impact on mental health, focusing on young people and their parents. It highlights that bullying is a major psychological problem with negative effects, and the rise of technology has increased cyberbullying. The excessive use of electronic devices increases the risk of cyberbullying, and girls are more affected than boys. Parental involvement is crucial in monitoring children's online activities and teaching them about digital citizenship. Smartphone addiction is linked to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The lack of education on online safety contributes to cyberbullying. Disassociation and nomophobia are also discussed as psychological effects of smartphone use. It is important for adults to educate themselves on smartphone use, while young people should be aware of the risks and seek help when needed. Hey guys, welcome and good morning. This is the AIPAC podcast and today we are going to be discussing the topic of cyberbullying and mental health issues through the use of smart phones, specifically through the lens of young people and parents. Today we've got Lisa, Peter, Chizamayga and Clodagh on today's episode. Chizamayga will introduce her topic now. Bullying is described as a repetitive violent behavior that is intentional, destructive and involves a power imbalance. It is widely recognized as a major psychological problem with substantial negative effects. Bullying increases the risk of mental health issues for adolescents and there has been an increase in cyberbullying due to technology. With the constant development of communication technologies, more children and adolescents have been exposed to smart phones over the recent years. Involvement in bullying, whether as a victim, the bully or both in some cases, is associated with anxiety, depression, psychological difficulties and self-harm behavior. There is also a relation between homophobia, which is the fear of not being able to use a mobile phone or the internet, and cyberbullying. Both of these problems are linked to emotional and behavioral problems. They are interconnected as the extreme use of electronic technological devices can increase the risk of involvement in cases of cyberbullying. We also find that girls are more likely to be affected by bullying and its effects than boys and females also have a higher frequency of homophobia than males. Victims of cyberbullying display higher levels of anxiety and depression as well as a higher risk of self-harm and suicidal behavior compared to victims of traditional bullying. Cyberbullying among youth is a matter of public health concern, particularly for suicide-related issues. Understanding the risk of bullying and who it affects helps to create useful interventions and reduce the early effects of bullying on mental health. Parents should be cautious and aware of these problems and there should be an education on the proper use of technology. Now regarding educating people on the proper use of technology, a group of people we believe should be educated are parents and Lisa is going to elaborate on this. Yeah as a parent I think cyber safety isn't like teaching your child to ride a bike. It's not a skill that you have when you were younger and that you can pass on to your child. It's an area where things are changing so much so quickly that as a parent you need constant reiteration and updating and strategies to protect your children. The above section indicates the importance of parental involvement both in monitoring your children's online interaction and relationship and in communication activities when it comes to preventing and addressing cyberbullying. If parents are willing to provide access to mobile phones and computers for their children, with this access comes the responsibility to understand, role model and communicate the fundamentals of good digital citizenship. Monitoring your child's interaction with technology is a vital part of making sure that your child is not being bullied online or that they are acting appropriately online and are not the perpetrators. There are certain age demographics where this can be easier to do than others. Younger children between the ages maybe of 8 and 12 are usually perceptive to show their parents what they're doing rather than seeing it as an invasion of their privacy. Whereas when it comes to teenagers around the age of 13 to 16 they might often not want their parents to see what they're doing online and may see it as an invasion of privacy. As a parent I feel that in this case it might be easier to open lines of communication and have discussion with your teen about what is regarded as good digital citizenship when you're interacting on social media or other apps. It is also important to ask how they might be feeling when they are interacting online with friends and it has been shown in recent reports that adult supervision reduces the risk of cyberbullying and grooming online. Parents must be educated on how the technologies and apps work and this should not be just left to the schools to educate the children on the dangers of technology. By parents and schools working together it has been proven to have a better outcome in the dangers of cyberbullying. As stated before, girls are more susceptible to overused smartphone addiction. This is an important factor as girls' levels of self-esteem can be diminished very quickly through a throwaway remark made on social media. There have been cases of girls as young as 13 committing suicides because of cyberbullying. This is a time when young girls are very self-conscious about their appearance and have a lot of hormonal changes happening. The first piece of advice to give a child that is engaging with others on social media is that if they feel they are being bullied they should stop, block and tell. A lot also depends on the willingness of a child or a young person to tell a parent about cyberbullying incidents and a parent's capacity to respond appropriately. When a cyberbullying incident has occurred the parent should report the incident to the school as soon as possible and ask for and accept help from the school. Whether the child is engaging in bullying behaviour, is being bullied or has been a witness to bullying, reports have shown that school involvement helps with getting the problem sorted successfully. The consequences of cyberbullying can stay with young people all their lives so as parents we must take this threat very seriously and educate ourselves on the issues to reduce the risk to our young people. Adults need to understand that for young people technology is a vital part of social life and identity development. Technology is here to stay and we must learn to live harmoniously with it. Now to live harmoniously with technology we must understand how smartphone addiction relates to mental health issues. Now a key area in which technology became super popular is during COVID. Now Peter has done some research on this area so would you like to tell us about it? Due to the restrictions at the time people had a lot more free time which led to an increase in technological use, in this case specifically video games. The authors acknowledged previous studies, one claiming the consequences depend on frequency and duration. Another study claimed the excessive use of video games led to aggressive cognition and aggressive behaviour. Finally the authors did their own study on 162 Italian children from three different primary schools and from their findings concluded there was a positive relationship between anxiety and video game usage. Another piece of research based on the correlation of smartphone use to mental health issues like depression, anxiety and FOMO. The author writes about problematic smartphone use otherwise known as PSU and finding it as excessive frequency of smartphone uses with impairment in academic and social functioning. The authors reference a study on psychopathology that found the seriousness of PSU only finding a small relation to depression and anxiety. The next major part of that goes on FOMO, fear of missing out. They claim FOMO directly correlates to excessive smartphone usage leading to depression and anxiety. From their research they found a study which claimed there was lower depression severity related to increased social smartphone use while increased anxiety related psychopathology relates only to process use. In 2018 the authors decided to do their own survey on 329 students between the age of 18 and 25 and they found in their results that their results prove their theory of process use. While mobile game addiction in relation to cyberbullying and effects on students academic performance is a major reason for some people's smartphone addiction it also links the addiction to poor academic results but from further research they found another study which opposed this theory claiming there is no relation. However, bullying and cyberbullying is different. Bullying in both forms is believed to have a major impact on academic performance. Another study that can be seen in the common use of smartphone usage and the everyday person is the problem of excessive internet use. A study states it causes disruption in the lives of young people. Junior high school students aged 12 to 15 were interviewed and examined using an internet addiction test IAT. This study concluded of 853 people surveyed 2% were addicted while 21.7% were possibly addicted. Cyberbullying is also an issue among college students. In their research they found the importance of smartphones to young people. Smartphones are considered one of three necessary everyday items young people have on them at all times. To be exact it was found that 77% of people aged 18 to 24 have smartphones on them at all times. Smartphone addiction is the most common form of internet addiction due to its easy access to the internet. This excessive use leads people to develop mental health issues like anxiety. Finally the authors also carried out their own study using a questionnaire on cyberbullying. To include the results they found of those surveys 33.3% were smartphone addicts and the occurrence of cyberbullying of its participants was 20.7%. Now while we are talking about addiction a study that was conducted in Canada spoke about how there's a dose response relationship between smartphones and social media and I personally think that's crazy. The fact that a block of light and apps can trigger a response in our brain like that just baffles me. Alongside that a trend I see in studies is how girls are more prone to experience negative mental health effects from social media and smartphones. I think the lack of schooling and education for online safety is a key reason for a lot of cyberbullying. Especially growing up I knew more about the internet and social media than my parents did which is worrying if you think about it. I think information on smartphones and social media should be something all parents should know because we live in a new technological age where it's only going to become more advanced from here. A common trend with young people and social media is suicidal ideation unfortunately. Now this is a very heavy topic but it is relevant because suicide is the second leading death in young people according to a study in Canada. Children need to know how to cope and manage their social media because in my opinion there's always going to be weird people online and all you can do as a parent is educate your children and let them know that they can come to you for help. Something that took me back was the increase in disassociation for young people. I think that considering COVID-19 and how we were isolated for so long that also contributes to the increase in disassociation. The definition of disassociation is feeling a sense of disconnectedness from the world. Now I see this a lot even in my own life because of how accessible things are online. Every day we're just bombarded with news on what's happening around the world and it's just sad news which doesn't really make anyone want to think about it. Now I can see how this would be something that increased especially during COVID. Not to mention disassociation causes an increase in anxiety too. The fact that the young generation are being found to have bad mental health as a generation is worrying and one common denominator is smartphones and social media. Now while I do believe that I don't think the solution is to take away all smartphones and social media because realistically children are going to need to improve the technological literacy. So taking that away from them automatically puts them at a disadvantage for their future with their peers. Do you ever wonder if you're getting texts when your phone is in the other room as well? Because I'll be honest I do. I always like to be able to see my phone and if I'm getting any text even if I'm muted which defeats the purpose and apparently there's a word for this which is called nomophobia and it basically is an increased sense of anxiety when you don't have your phone around. Now I've read that this can be either one or both reasons. It can be either a psychological thing or a habitual behavior but it can also be an attachment thing. Now I don't know about you but that sounds crazy to me at first but the more I read about it the more it made sense. Now definition of attachment is something to essentially touch base with when life becomes too much. I can see this in my own life honestly. I have a horrible sense of direction so having my phone with me automatically puts me at ease because I know if I get lost I can use maps to call or text somebody for help and that's all I know too which is honestly crazy to think about. Now as someone with glasses I feel like it is my duty to say this. When I was a kid my parents told me that the phone is damaging my eyes and I'd be like yeah right and disregarded. I'm telling you now that it is true. Now my need for glasses is genetic but my screen exposure certainly did help. A specific thing that's becoming super popular is the discussion of blue light. Now blue light affects our ceradian rhythm which basically tells us day from night and it works based on a 24-hour talk. While young people already have a different ceradian rhythm to older people it still gets majorly affected negatively by blue light. This light comes from our phones and basically messes up our sleep section. We all know what lack of sleep does and how it can make someone go crazy too. So to sum up our podcast on smartphone use and the possibility of cyberbullying and mental health illnesses there is plenty for both adults and young people to take away from it. For adults please educate yourself on how to use smartphones and apps. They are not going away and they are being integrated into our lives. For young people you are not weird. Everyone has a form of nomophobia and don't forget smartphones are not good for your eyesight or your sleep patterns and when in doubt stop, block and tell.