Annie Zhao, PD 6, 1/4/24

Annie Zhao, PD 6, 1/4/24
Modern Mythology
Topic: Socio-political Consciousness

I think I can say for everyone that Covid messed us up in ways that we could never fix easily. Even if your family wasn’t affected by the pandemic as much as others were, there were still too many variables changed to truly remain the same as you were before 2020. Personally, I struggled with mental and physical health during the prolonged period of quarantine with lasting effects. Of course, I wasn’t alone as many others seemed to deal with the same issues, especially those my age.


Even before the pandemic, mental health issues have been rising significantly in young adults with a high relation to the increased use of technology and social media. In a study done by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, and her fellow co-authors, data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health was analyzed, resulting in the conclusion that “...rates of recent serious psychological distress, past-year MDE [or Major Depressive Episodes], and past-year suicide-related outcomes (suicidal ideation, plans, attempts, and deaths by suicide) increased among adolescents aged 12 to 17 and young adults ages 18 to 25 between the mid-2000s and 2017, with smaller and less consistent increases among adults ages 26 and over.” Twenge believes that the changes in social interaction and lack of sleep due to the use of “electronic communication and digital media” may have been the reason behind the differences between teens and older adults.


Now, if the mental health issues of adolescents are increasing due to the frequent use of technology and cultural trends of social media, Covid-19 was bound to cause an even larger spike of mental health dilemmas with how we handled it. With everyone being confined in their homes for months beyond end, using electronics and digital devices was the only way to interact with people and create a false sense of normalcy in our daily lives. Researchers came to the conclusion that even three years after the onset of the pandemic, there are rising concerns that the US is experiencing a mental health crisis across more age cohorts. The viral disease, coupled with increased use of digital communication and socio-political disparity, led to an even higher rise in mental health and substance abuse issues. The rate of symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders increased with young adults and adolescent females experiencing the largest uptakes. In a survey conducted by KFF/CNN, around half of parents reported that the pandemic had negatively impacted their children’s mental health and the gap in female adolescents reporting feelings indicative of depressive disorders increased from 47% in 2019 to 57% in 2021.


Now, years have passed since the start of Covid and life is seemingly back to normal, but I wonder what the true impact of the pandemic has had on teenagers and young adults. For us, it had appeared right at the onslaught of a huge transition in our lives. Even if we’re no longer experiencing the same emotions we felt during the first year, the changes we’ve experienced have no doubt have had lasting effects and will continue to do so for years to come. Fundamentally, our generation is a little messed up now and I’m curious as to how that will affect society as a whole. Obviously, everyone was affected by Covid but many of the older generations continue on with life with no qualms. These days, our generation is entering or has recently entered adult life and there already seems to be differences in the general ways of cultural trends and lifestyles. I’m intrigued to see how society will evolve.


In a worrying vein though, technology has been advancing at an exponential rate. The negative effects have already been showing in the younger generations with iPad kids and younger lax parents. Covid didn’t affect kids in the same way that teens and young adults were but the use of electronics and digital entertainment was definitely enforced, possibly too early in their stage of development. Chromebooks were free and readily available for those who didn’t have devices so most kids had easy access to the internet. There’s definitely been a rise in concern about the negative effects of technology for developing children these past few years and considering how my generation was affected, I’m not exactly optimistic about the younger generations. There’s a theory called Technological Singularity, where scientists believe that at a certain point, we’ll reach a level of technology that surpasses human ability. And that point in time is actually pretty close as evidenced by the new AI technology that’s become popularized. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, who has a prediction accuracy rate of 86%, even set the date we reach Singularity to be 2045. So with these new terrifying revelations, the lasting effects of recent world-wide issues and events, and the instability of the socio-political climate across the world, the future seems to be a scary place, a thought that further deters us from becoming adults with our difficult experiences.




Twenge, J. M., Cooper, A. B., Joiner, T. E., Duffy, M. E., & Binau, S. G. (2019). Age, period, and cohort trends in mood disorder indicators and suicide-related outcomes in a nationally representative dataset, 2005–2017. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(3), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000410

Panchal N., Saunders H., Rudowitz R., & Cox C. (2023), The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use, KFF. https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/

Becher B. (2023), What is Technological Singularity?, Artificial Intelligence, Built In, https://builtin.com/artificial-intelligence/technological-singularity

Czeisler MÉ , Lane RI, Petrosky E, et al. Mental Health, Substance Use, and Suicidal Ideation During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, June 24–30, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:1049–1057. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1