Guest Op/Ed: Isolation and the Tragedy of American Youth
BLP Staff
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By: Darielle Mac
I’m not a mental health professional. I am a creative. But it doesn’t take a professional to see that today’s youth, especially young women, are experiencing a mental health crisis. My heart ached as I recently watched someone I dearly love suffer a mental break due to the loneliness, bullying, and toxic nonreality of social media, compounded by the psychological damage of isolation during Covid. I was equally devastated to discover just how widespread and severe the crisis is.
According to a recent CDC report, about 60% of teenaged girls in America reported feeling “persistently sad or hopeless,” while “more than 1 in 4 girls reported they seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021.” Terrifyingly, more than 1 in 10 teen girls reported that they had actually attempted suicide in 2021.
I watched with sadness as this lovely teenager, gifted with voice, song, and a beautiful spirit, became trapped in the destructive loop of bullying, unrealistic expectations, and general negativity that are so pervasive on social media. And her story is far from unique. A Pew Research Center study revealed that “46% of teens say they experienced cyberbullying when online or on their cellphones,” with most of that bullying reportedly occurring on popular social media sites. In addition to overt bullying and harassment, our youth are perpetually exposed to the toxicity of unrealistic expectations and manipulated reality, especially regarding popularity, personal success, and body image.
Instead of learning the lessons of independence, confidence, and self-worth that are essential to and fostered through healthy face-to-face interaction, the distance and anonymity of the internet encourage negativity and destructiveness in the social media world. And it’s this world—the online world—where our youth increasingly live their lives, with little privacy to learn life lesson, make mistakes, or grow up. How terrifying to know that your youthful blunders or most embarrassing moments will be immortalized online for everyone to find with the click of a button.
After realizing the full weight of the mental health crisis, I decided to pour my creativity into constructing a story to reach the youth, young women especially, and pull them back from the black hole of social media. I want to give them a positive story world that would empower them to learn and grow in body, mind, and spirit. Instead of online toxicity, I want them to visualize and internalize positivity and possibility so they can better create and contribute to a healthy society.
Through my book North Star Rising, I have sought to empower and uplift young women while arming them with the tools to cope, overcome, and thrive in the face of adversity, and defend against the downward spiral of negativity. Through this magical story, I show youth how to be adventurous, find out who they are, and create a place to belong and flourish. I empower them to make their own magic rather than subject themselves to the restrictions others might try to force upon them.
Our broken society generates formulaic and lazy messaging that is designed for corporate and activist success, not the healthy development of productive and successful youth. This damaging pattern is perpetuated as the people responsible focus on climbing their own ladders of success, even at the expense of the rising generation. They are afraid that deviating from this messaging will break the ladder upon which they stand, so they sacrifice the wellness of our youth to avoid damaging their own prospects. But I am unwilling to make that sacrifice.
We are not evolving or improving as a society, and our children are suffering for it. We must all take an interest in the mental health crisis and be willing to take the steps necessary to rectify the damage already done, as well as arm our youth with the knowledge and mental power to reach their full potential. Our broken society needs everyone to contribute their individual talents and strengths and help us all move forward to heal self, family, and society. We must all be willing to lead by example.
Author Darielle Mac is a writer who received her BA from Hampshire College in Amherst and did her MFA work at CCA in Oakland, California, in film video and performance.
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