Prioritizing Mental Health: Helping Teens Thrive in the Digital Age
The importance of developing adolescents' resilience and self-awareness by enriching their visual culture.
Encouraging students to intentionally select an image or series of images that represent how they feel or how they would like to feel is a powerful way to develop their observational and analytical skills and improve their mental wellbeing.
Engaging students in activities that improve their mental health can be challenging in today's digital age. With teens constantly glued to their phones and consuming endless amounts of images and videos, it's crucial to consider the impact of digital content on their mental wellbeing. Unlike previous generations who processed images at a slower pace from paperback magazines, today's teens are forced to rapidly process a constant flow of impactful images and videos on social media platforms and beyond.
This has a profound impact on the emotions and mental health of students, emphasizing the need to nurture and practice more "visual culture enrichment activities." Such initiatives should prioritize observational and analytical skills that help students understand the psychological implications of the content they consume. By teaching students how to critically engage with the digital media they encounter, we can empower them to make informed choices that support their mental wellbeing.
Enriching Visual Culture
When it comes to promoting mental wellbeing among teens, a common question arises: what types of actions and activities can be implemented to support them? While limiting screen time and encouraging them to avoid comparing themselves with the images they see in the digital world may be helpful, they do not address the root of the problem. Instead, we should focus on building their resilience and self-awareness by enriching their visual culture.
Until recently, a deep understanding and practice of conscious image analysis was not considered a serious skill for development in education. The education community tends to view image analysis and visual culture as a part of visual arts, but not as something essential to master, such as math or science. However, we live in a world inundated with images, each with different levels of significance, and it is crucial to foster students' problem-solving and analytical skills by teaching them how to analyze images and understand their significance and emotional impact.
Enriching students about how images are structured, their meaning, and how that meaning relates to their emotions is necessary to equip them with the tools they need to navigate the challenges of adolescence and emerge as resilient, well-rounded individuals.
Enriching students about how images are structured, their meaning, and how that meaning relates to their emotions is necessary to equip them with the tools they need to navigate the challenges of adolescence and emerge as resilient, well-rounded individuals. By emphasizing visual culture enrichment, we can help students develop the critical thinking skills they need to make informed decisions about the digital media they consume and help them develop the resilience needed to navigate the challenges of today's digital age. In essence, by focusing on visual culture enrichment activities, we can help teens build the skills they need to maintain good mental health and wellbeing, ultimately leading to greater success in all aspects of their lives.
Visual Culture Enrichment: A Practical Example
To cultivate teens' awareness of how images impact their emotions and wellbeing, it's crucial to create and execute innovative visual culture enrichment activities that foster the development of their observational and analytical skills.
One such example is a project that I had the privilege of developing a few years ago in Barcelona with a group of teenagers in foster care. This project was both challenging and rewarding, as it gave me insight into the struggles these young people often encounter, such as feelings of abandonment, isolation, and difficulties in developing trusting relationships. However, I was also inspired by their resilience, strength, and potential. Through the use of multimedia resources, we created a safe and supportive environment and provided them with the tools and skills to overcome their obstacles, ultimately leading to their personal growth, wellbeing and development.
One effective activity we developed involved using images and voices to help the participants ease their fear about the future and improve their self-esteem and confidence. The activity had three steps: first, we collected hundreds of images from magazines and asked each participant to select three based on three prompts. The first image represented their present moment, the second image represented how they saw themselves in the future, and the third image was an image in which they felt ideally represented in the future.
Next, participants were asked to place their selected images in front of the camera and explain the reasons behind their choices. We recorded their voices, which were then edited over the images in a final video that was made available to all of them. This system allowed them to express their thoughts and feelings in a safe and supportive environment, enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of their desires, hopes, and aspirations. The activity also provided an opportunity for them to practice their communication and self-expression skills, which are critical in building positive relationships and maintaining good mental health.
By articulating their intentions for choosing each image, students develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their desires, fostering a sense of confidence and conscious decision-making abilities.
Encouraging students to intentionally select an image or series of images that represent how they feel or how they would like to feel is a powerful way to develop their observational and analytical skills. This activity allows them to go beyond the passive consumption of images in social media, magazines, or advertisements and to consciously make decisions about their emotions and aspirations. By articulating their intentions for choosing each image, students develop a deeper understanding of themselves and their desires, fostering a sense of confidence and conscious decision-making abilities. As educators, it's crucial to recognize that this activity can provide valuable insights into students' feelings and perspectives.
The beauty of this activity is that it can be implemented without any fancy app or equipment. All that is needed is a collection of images, whether physical or digital, and a safe and supportive environment where students feel comfortable expressing themselves. By providing students with the opportunity to practice their communication and self-expression skills, this activity also helps them build positive relationships and maintain good mental health, which is especially critical in today's digital age.
For instance, during the activity, a student selected an image of a person holding a $100 bill, stating that it represented his "ideal future of wealth and abundance." This provides an opportunity to explore his aspirations further and initiate a dialogue about the relationship between money and happiness.
Another girl's choice of an image depicting a man drowning in the sea speaks volumes about her present struggles. The same girl picked for her ideal future a woman drinking lemonade stating that she picked the image because the woman appears to be "a happy model with money" and that she assumes that "everyone wants to have a good future."
The Bottom Line
This exercise highlights the profound impact of visual media in initiating valuable conversations with students about their emotional and mental wellbeing. By comprehending your students' perspectives and motivations, you can effectively guide them towards personal growth and fulfillment. Moreover, by prompting students to intentionally select images in which they feel represented, you are also making them aware of the automatic thought process that occurs in their minds without their consciousness. By bringing attention to this psychological mechanism, students can gain greater control over their emotions.
These types of activities can be a fun and engaging way to get students thinking critically about the content they consume on social media. It encourages them to reflect on their own values and perspectives while also developing their analytical and communication skills. Additionally, it allows for an opportunity to discuss the potential downsides of social media and how to use it responsibly.
By developing and implementing mental health initiatives that prioritize visual culture enrichment observational and analytical skills, we can empower students to make informed choices that support their mental wellbeing.
In conclusion, as educators, we must be mindful of the impact of digital content on the mental health of our students. By developing and implementing mental health initiatives that prioritize visual culture enrichment observational and analytical skills, we can empower students to make informed choices that support their mental wellbeing. Activities that encourage self-reflection and self-expression, such as the image selection activity described, can be a valuable tool in achieving this goal.
Visual Culture Enrichment in Action
The video below showcases the activity described above during a successful program developed in Barcelona to support students in foster care using multimedia resources. Through this activity, participants were able to alleviate anxiety about their present and future while experiencing significant improvements in self-esteem and confidence.
It's important to recognize that the program in question was created in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, a time that had a significant impact on the students' image selection process. This underscores how our engagement with media content is influenced by the prevailing news cycle, and how it can shape the expectations and well-being of young people. Therefore, it's essential to develop support programs that are attuned to the specific challenges faced by the communities they serve, especially during times of crisis and uncertainty. By doing so, we can better equip young people with the tools and resources they need to navigate difficult circumstances and build a brighter future.
