Growing Up in a Shocking (but Never Surprising) World

Without a doubt, we live in an all-too polarizing world. One comment or social media post can seemingly make or break someone’s entire reputation. But is that really fair, especially for college students?

As young adults in the midst of our college education, we experience a great deal of pressure in every aspect and day of our lives. Between grades, professors and peers, this burden comes naturally to our community, and the added social pressures of our increasingly polarized country can easily be too much. Living in a world where everything is shocking and nothing is surprising can easily take a toll on the people around us.

This year has certainly been no break from this idea of social and political anxiety, especially among college students. And the pressures of 2020 do not seem to be going away any time soon.

The stress of our social and political climates, mixed with a world-wide pandemic has been weighing over our generation for too long. It is up to college students, like us, to change the shocking stigmas of our political and social lives, to create a much more welcoming and positive world for those around us.

The spread of the Coronavirus has also increased polarization throughout the past six months. While the pandemic has taken so much away from college students in particular, it has also significantly worsened their mental health above other populations. According to Emma Kerr of the U.S. News and World Report, about 20% of students in college believe their mental health has noticeably declined since the Covid-19 pandemic reached the United States. Also mentioned in the article is the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Thomas Insel, who is worried that unfortunately the full magnitude of these impacts cannot be known.

“When you add in this new set of stressors, I think there’s every reason to be concerned, but we need the data to know what that really looks like, and we don’t yet have it.” He says.

The extra pressure in everyone’s life—thanks to the Coronavirus—only adds to the burden of every other shocking event that has occurred in 2020 and is a primary source of stress for students our age.

An election year is always stressful, but 2020 is certainly something we have never seen before. It’s amazing to see such increased voter engagement amongst college students; however, most are just simply not excited for a candidate or the election as a whole.

With a mail-in ballot controversy and a pandemic in the mix, a significant portion of young voters have little confidence in the upcoming election. As if worrying about our own college lives wasn’t stressful enough, now we have the fate of our country to stress about.

Riley Beggin of Vox.com says confidence throughout the college communities in the United States about the election is lacking and the political pressures derived from this are distracting to students throughout the country. And, in a nation so politically divided, it can be really difficult to have meaningful conversations about the election without feeling the pressures of social media or even friends to speak or feel a certain way. The pressures and burdens of this chaotic and polarizing election year unfortunately add to the stresses already apparent in the lives of college students throughout the entire country.

Growing up in a world where everything is shocking and nothing is surprising has sadly created a stressful environment, especially in college. The pressures we put on ourselves and others through social media can honestly be exhausting.

It is so wonderful that as a young and promising generation we have been given this platform to inspire change and show our creative sides. But, we have to hold each other accountable to use it the right and respectful way. Otherwise, in a year like this, the burdens of this outlet can be too much.

So please, check on your friends. In these incredibly difficult times, try to give everyone a break and understand where they might be coming from. The world right now can be a scary place, so try not to give anyone else another reason to feel the stress or pressures of it. And try to be on the brighter side of things. It’s much more fun.