Mental Illness

This blog assignment really made me think about the vastness of mental illness and how technology and digital media are connected to our ability to have control and free will over our lives.

To some extent, I do believe that we have created different beliefs and wants as we have increased our classification of different mental illness and increased people’s freedom. When I think of the internet, I think of how easy it is to gain knowledge about… basically anything, connect with anyone who uses it, and how this impacts our ability to learn, decide what we believe, and create our identity. Knowledge really can be powerful.

When thinking about technology and mental illness, I can’t help but think of all the ways that digital technology has provided resources or a way to access resources to promote mental health. Whether this is finding support, treatment, medical attention, knowledge and understanding, or advocating for destigmatization. This doesn’t mean that naming and classifying doesn’t create mental illness. However, I would say that in the case of addressing mental illness technology and digital media will do more harm than good as we continue to discover the importance of mental health as a society.

As science progresses, people become more empowered and more informed, and find resources that help them deal with challenges, I think people automatically gain free will because it becomes harder for other actors to control them. With this said, I think the continual creation of new mental illnesses is inevitable. However, hopefully with new ideas and increased access to services that accommodate different physical and mental needs, this will lead to a greater acceptance of and kindness for differences and challenges that make us unique. When we have conversations about how we are supposed to deal with the extremes (hatred that led to killing, fear of different people, mental illness that leads to suicide, etc. etc.) we start to address these issues so that we can hopefully not only prepare for them but prevent them in the future.

As I think about all the things we’ve have talked about this semester, I think the internet and technology go hand in hand with these issues. With new technology, increased communication, and free speech comes new ideas, connections, and access to resources.

This doesn’t mean we should ignore the dangers but as they become more apparent. As a society, hopefully we will learn about dangers of technology and take measures to prevent them from being used in harmful ways. As always, easier said than done. I might be too optimistic about these issues considering we have more free will for good and bad than we maybe ever did but I honestly believe that we can let digital media change our lives for the better.