Author: Baxter Willis / Source: The Next Web
We live in a world where technology is increasingly ubiquitous and showing no signs of slowing down. Whether in our professional or personal lives, the always-on, always-connected nature of life in 2019 seems to be unavoidable. And aside from the internet itself, of all the technologies, software, and hardware available to us, the spread of social media is arguably difficult to beat in terms of its cultural impact.
Despite well-publicised issues with user privacy and questionable business practices by some of the biggest platforms, social media remains in robust health, with over 2.27 billion monthly active Facebook users, and 326 million on Twitter alone. Yet as social media has grown more popular, so too has an awareness of the negative effect it can have on users’ mental health, with a recent YouGov survey showing 57 percent of young people in the UK thinking social media creates “overwhelming pressure” to succeed.
This hasn’t happened in isolation, either. Whether focused on young people or the aged, and thanks in part to celebrity-backed campaigns, the volume level of discussions on mental wellbeing and mental health has been turned up. Given we spend a majority of our waking hours at work, increasingly the discussion is now being extended with mental health in the workplace is finally getting the attention it deserves, too.
Beyond simply caring for your fellow human, it makes business sense too. As the 2017 Stevenson/ Farmer review found, the cost of poor mental health in the UK workplace is estimated to be between £33 billion and £42 billion every year as a result of sickness, staff turnover, and presenteeism (when individuals are less productive due to poor mental health in work).
You can find a similar situation across the Atlantic, too, with employee mental health costs in the US rising twice as fast as all other medical expenses. It’s still relatively early days, but already the more progressive businesses out there have begun to realize if their employees aren’t happy and well-adjusted, they can hardly be expected to produce stellar work.
The increased awareness is reflected…
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