The Pandemic Has Made Our Kids Meaner!
Shut up! You don’t say?
The pandemic did more damage than we may have thought. The amount of time kids spent online during the health crises may have made them meaner and less empathetic.
Kaitlynn Mendes, an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, said during an Ontario Medical Association press conference that many parents may not be aware of their children’s increased exposure to online harassment during the pandemic, which is now having damaging consequences.
Kids have become meaner and have less empathy!
This happened due to things like the lack of eye contact, facial expression, human touch and even voice intonations. These are very important social keys that you cannot achieve from online interaction.
Currently, a comprehensive study about isolation’s mental health impact on Canadian youth is being done.
A study was already completed in the UK that found that British youth between the ages of 13 and 18 showed that they spent a lot more time on social media time during the pandemic.
The British youths surveyed reported that more time online led to an increase “in their experiences of sexual harassment, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and even various forms of fraud … and other practices like body shaming.”
In the U.K., young people also cited “increased anxiety, depression and even various forms of self-harm,” reports the study!
The big question now is, how do we fix this?
