In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg launched the idea of a new era for the internet, where our bodies would immerse in a new virtual experience called the metaverse. The “deep feeling of presence” through a multi-sensory experience in every place and in every moment would revolutionize our communication and social connections.

A metaverse is a virtual world or shared space that is created by combining virtual and augmented reality, as well as other forms of digital media like games, social media and other online platforms. It allows users to interact with one another, participate in interactive experiences and explore a vast, interconnected digital landscape. The metaverse is frequently portrayed as a multi-user virtual environment in which people can interact in real-time and feel as if they are physically present.

A metaverse, in theory, would provide a unified, integrated experience across multiple devices, platforms and physical locations. Users will be able to access a shared digital space from any location, at any time and with anyone. This would open up new avenues for social interaction, commerce, education, entertainment and a variety of other human activities.

While the concept of a metaverse has been around for a long time, recent technological advancements such as virtual and augmented reality, 5G networks and cloud computing, have made it easier to create and experience it. Experts believe that the metaverse will change the way we live, work and interact with one another in the same way that the internet changed the way we communicate and access information. However, the development of a metaverse raises serious concerns about privacy, security and ownership. As the metaverse grows in popularity, it will be critical to establish clear rules and regulations to protect a user’s rights and freedoms. To understand, in simple words, what the metaverse is, here are a few points to remember:

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Exam stress or test anxiety involves a combination of excessively negative feelings, worry and dread about test performance and often interferes with normal learning and lowers exam performance. It is prevalent amongst students all over the world. The words ‘pressure’ and ‘stress’ are often used interchangeably, but in fact they are quite different.

Pressure can be positive and useful to complete deadlines or to help somebody avoid danger. However, when pressure is prolonged, it can be negative, and depending on how the individual perceives it and reacts to it, it can lead to the development of stress.

Exam stress is a natural reaction to too much pressure and can come from a number of sources, viz., young people themselves, comparisons with others, wanting to reach over-ambitious goals, pressure to excel in an exam from family members and peer pressure or pressure from teachers.

Symptoms of exam stress or test anxiety

Some people feel pressure and develop stress symptoms more readily than others. When someone is faced with increased pressure (in this case at exam time) their body can go into a response which releases increased amounts of stress chemicals in the body. This can lead to various symptoms including:

• Feeling cranky and irritable.
• Feeling inadequate and negative self-talk.
• Problems sleeping or waking up from sleep.

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Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)

The Fear of Missing Out or FOMO refers to the feeling or perception that others are having more fun, living better lives or experiencing better things than you are. It involves a deep sense of envy and affects self-esteem. It’s not just the sense that there might be better things that you could be doing at this moment, but it is the feeling that you are missing out on something fundamentally important that others are experiencing right now. It is becoming increasingly common, in part thanks to social media, and can cause significant stress in your life. It can affect just about anyone, but some people are at greater risk of FOMO.

Social media creates a platform for bragging; it is where things, events, and even happiness itself seem to be in competition at times. People are comparing their best, picture-perfect experiences, which may lead you to wonder what you are lacking.

These are a few terms related to FOMO:
FOBO (Fear Of Better Options): This refers to the fear that you are missing out on potentially better alternatives.
MOMO (Mystery Of Missing Out): This refers to the fear that you are missing out but not having any clue about what you’re missing out on.
ROMO (Reality Of Missing Out): This refers to knowing that you aren’t missing out on anything.
FOJI (Fear Of Joining In): The fear of sharing things on social media but not garnering any response.

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Mental health is a neglected issue with most people. Physical health has always been the focus as people walk, jog, go to the gym and exercise, but often neglect the mind and emotions. People rarely visit a mental health professional when they are stressed and often wait for the situation to worsen before they decide to meet someone for help.

Let’s look at some ways to keep ourselves mentally healthy in 2023.

Track gratitude and achievement with a journal.

Write down three things you were grateful for and three things you were able to accomplish each day along with people that made you happy and smile. Keep reviewing this journal monthly so that you have an idea of all the good things that happened.

Start your day with a cup of coffee.

But don’t overdo it. Coffee consumption is linked to lower rates of depression. If caffeine does not suit you, green tea also works.

Set up a getaway or small holiday trip or road trip from time to time.

The act of planning a vacation and having something to look forward to can boost your overall happiness for up to eight weeks as per studies.

Work on your strengths.

Do something you’re good at to build self-confidence; then tackle a tougher task. Make a list of all the work to be done and keep ticking it off so you know how much you have finished.

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The sense of smell is a remarkable gift to human beings. Various aromas affect our emotions, evoke memories, unleash desires, and can help us feel calm, comfortable and safe. Aromatherapy is a natural way to excite our sense of smell and to improve our psychological well-being. For example, the smell of lavender can be calming to the nerves, and peppermint can stimulate the mind and boost energy levels.

The practice of aromatherapy dates back as far as 4000 BC, when the ancient Egyptians produced medicine, embalming agents, perfumes and cosmetics with the use of scented oils. Chinese, Indian, Greek and Roman civilizations also made use of scented oils in therapeutic, spiritual, hygienic and ritualistic activities. In the 5th century BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates taught and promoted the health benefits of aromatic oils.

For thousands of years, we have utilized herbs for their medicinal and aromatic properties; perfumes being important in ritual life, incense being burned in temples and used for purification, for example, the symbolism of fragrance being a powerful religious tool.

Essential oils extracted from aromatic plants can be used in our everyday lives so that we may benefit from the properties of certain plants. Aromatherapy can be used to treat mental health-related symptoms such as anxiety, stress, depression, insomnia as well as migraine and anger.

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Gardening has been around for as long as humans have been growing plants for their personal needs. Through the years, gardens have served not only as places to grow plants but as spaces for people to relax, to focus, and to connect with nature and each other.

Gardening can improve many aspects of mental health, focus, and concentration and also enhance the positive well-being of an individual. Some of the ways in which gardening helps include:

1. Enhancement of mood: Gardening can make you feel more peaceful and content. It enhances a positive mood and also helps in directing your attention towards immediate tasks and details of gardening that can reduce negative thoughts and feelings.

2. Self-esteem development or boost: Self-esteem is how much you value and feel positively about yourself. When you see your work pay off with healthy plants, your sense of pride gets a boost. Many people find a sense of purpose and meaning in looking after plants and feel that plants are like children that they are rearing.

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Digital media and devices like smartphones, iPads, tablets and laptops have invaded our lives and our minds. We are bamboozled and bombarded by what is an overdose of digital information, almost translating into an epidemic that may be termed ‘digital infobesity’ (information excess). This is more so in a pandemic era when life has taken a 360 degree turn and become digital. We are constantly in touch with the world of digital media checking WhatsApp messages and updates, Facebook posts and stories, tweeting away on Twitter and posting our lives on Instagram and Snapchat. We also have various apps on our phones that beep to keep us alerted, and we keep checking so as not to miss anything.

What damage has digital media done?

Digital media has taken over our lives completely. Human beings have always been a species that have communicated via speech. Digital media has transformed speech communication into messages and text communications whereby human beings have forgotten the art of speaking to one another. When one visits parks and cafes, one is sickened to see human beings so busy on their gadgets. Social visits now involve multiple groups of human beings deskbound and torpid, glued to their devices and gadgets. In fact, many of them may forward messages to the person in front of them!

(With inputs from Pragya Lodha, a Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist based in Mumbai)

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Digital media has invaded our lives and our minds. We are bombarded by what is an overdose of digital information almost translating into an epidemic that may be termed digital infobesity (information excess). We are constantly in touch with the world through digital media checking WhatsApp messages, Facebook status updates and posts, tweeting away and posting pictures of our lives on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

Positive aspects of digital media

However, one of the most important positive aspects of digital media is social connectivity. It helps in enhancing awareness about the world and connecting with human beings all over the world. Digital media keeps us updated about all the news and happenings from all over the world which is made available at a swipe or touch of a button via the internet. Besides updating ourselves through social media and connecting to our well wishers, there are many mobile applications that make life easier and save our time and effort. Consider the role of Google Maps and navigation applications. Here our smartphone directs us to our destination with the help of Google Maps or a GPS system while alerting us about mishaps and traffic situations along the way. Similarly, we have stopped using notebooks or diaries to write appointments and in fact do not carry paper and pen anymore. We just click a photo of any important information and store it on our phones.

Sharing information and data became easier with the help of Bluetooth and articles, books or pictures can be easily shared via applications like WhatsApp. These days, the phone has replaced the camera and provides us better or almost equivalent images. Mobile companies keep luring people by flaunting the megapixels of their cameras and phones that enhance selfies are now available including cameras that click perfect pictures at night. Social networking sites can be accessed through our cell phones and thus people are on their phones most of the time unaware of what is happening around them. Besides useful work applications, the phone is a source of entertainment, such as music players, videos, gaming, etc., which attracts kids and adolescents towards the smartphone or tablet. It is important that we realize that while digital media is useful we should not become slaves to its grandeur.

What damage has digital media done?

Digital media has taken over our lives completely. Human beings have always been a species that has communicated via speech. Digital media has transformed that communication into messages and text communications whereby human beings have forgotten the art of speaking to one another. When one visits parks and cafes, one is exhumed to see that people are so busy on their gadgets that social visits now involve multiple groups of human beings desk bound and torpid but glued to their devices and gadgets, and in fact, many of them may message or forward messages to the person in front of them!

Gaming and social media

An obsession with gaming has led to a mad race to complete levels and display gaming accomplishments online. Gaming communities serve to replace one’s family and relatives and draws the gamer into a different realm where he is satisfied with his virtual gaming community and feels no need to associate with the real world. There is the acquired tendency to check devices from time to time and this may happen at any time of the day or even in the middle of the night. Digital media bewitches us and we are plagued with the morbid fear of missing out on something that the world may know and we may not know because we have not checked our mobiles. Every Facebook like and Instagram heart matters and there is a need to have more likes and hearts than our friends. Every comment received on Facebook is regarded as a positive and failure to get any can drive one to the brink of despair.

Effects on sleep

Very often digital devices are used at night and this leads to a cutting down on one’s sleep time. This leads to new problems in the form of daytime sleepiness, physical illness and decreased immunity that makes one prone to various infections and other disorders. Children are not spared either. There is the emergence of the birth of a digital toddler who is now conditioned in a Pavlovian manner to gadgets that serves as surrogate babysitters. The emotions of young children respond more to gadgets and their beeps or videos rather than to the voice of a parent. While these provide reprieve to the parents, it is priming the child to become hooked onto digital media in the long run. There is a generation of children who are born digital and primed digital and the ethical and rational use of digital media is a tenet that remains untaught and unchartered.

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Everyone today is wired to each other in some way or the other, but without real wires. Digital technology keeps us in a world of our own insulated and isolated from the real world. Text messages and virtual greeting cards have replaced posted cards and letters. E-mails have effectively shrunk the world and eliminated borders and distances. Media technology and the internet have developed at a faster pace than our ability to understand the social, emotional and psychological impact of digital technology on human beings and human relationships. There are hazardous risks to human relationships due to digital technology and these cannot be trivialized. Digital technology is here to stay and we must be mindful of its rich yet unwieldy potential while impacting human relationships. Technology in some form has always been a part of human life. From electricity at one point to telephones to television and now to the more complex world of computers and cell phones, technology has always moved hand in hand with human development. More and more people use the internet to communicate while spoken communication and human relationships and dialogue continue to suffer. Let’s look at the effects of digital technology on relationships.

Online communication in virtual reality

Virtual reality was originally conceived as a digitally created space that humans could access by donning sophisticated computer equipment and through this space, they could be transported to a different world, a substitute reality in which one could interact with objects, people, and environments. On one hand virtual reality allows an expression of what the ideal or real self would like to be or do in humans, but it also allows expression of a dark and ugly self that sometimes may be unacceptable to the real world. Chat rooms for instance allow individuals in virtual space to open up completely to strangers without the fear of being known and sometimes the advice sought may be helpful or even detrimental. Weak and timid individuals seek solace online in trying to express themselves as strong and robust personalities when in reality it is a façade they are letting themselves fall for. They withdraw even more from the real world and are happy in their false virtual world where they feel no threat from others. Children are hooked on to the internet at a young age which may hinder their ability to socialize, form friends and communicate freely. Children are happy in this dream world and continue to live in this fantasy with their so-called cyber friends who are victims of the virtual space themselves. Today husbands and wives, children and parents often chat online and talk online though they may be living in the same house and prefer it that way. Open face-to-face communication has dwindled and this may have had an impact on the quality of human relationships and the generation and evolution of emotions that are needed to fuel various relationships.

Weak and timid individuals seek solace online in trying to express themselves as strong and robust personalities when in reality it is a façade they are letting themselves fall for. They withdraw even more from the real world and are happy in their false virtual world where they feel no threat from others.

This may be because the real world sees the real human with real emotions and flaws that hurt us, compared to the online world that sees either a real self with no inhibitions, no fears, or rather sees a projected perfect self. This has been termed as the online disinhibition effect and refers to the way people behave on the internet with less restraint than in real-world situations. This concept is related to the concept of online identity. The core concept of the online disinhibition effect refers to a loosening (or complete abandonment) of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction. Because of this loss of inhibition, some users may exhibit benign tendencies; people may become more affectionate, more willing to open up to others, less guarded about their emotions and may speak to others about what they are feeling in an attempt to achieve emotional catharsis.

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What is the Blue Whale Challenge?

The game has been claimed to have started in Russia and has been incriminated in teenage suicides in Russia and Europe. It is an online social media group where you may not be able to download the game from a play store but have to be invited to play the game. The group administrator assigns daily tasks that one must complete in a 50-day period. These range from watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours to engaging in self-injurious behaviour. The tasks get more extreme and difficult as the days pass. On the 50th and final day, the administrator instructs the players to attempt and commit suicide. There are reports that those who want to back out on the last day are threatened that their family members will be hurt if they don’t abide by the game rules. There is no exit from the game.

The biggest fear is that since it is an online entity and spread over the internet, it can be accessed from anywhere. Reports have accounted the spreading of this game to the USA, Europe, UK and now even India. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are probable platforms where the administrator gets in touch with the participant after those interested throw out postings on social media asking for a curator.

What we can do about it

1. Parents need to constantly maintain healthy and open conversations with their children about various aspects of internet use, video game use and the rational use and dangers of the same.

2. Parents need to constantly monitor what their children are doing online. They need to be aware of the internet; they need to know what games their children play, who they chat with and also be aware of various social media sites that their children post on.

3. They must explain to children the difference between a virtual video game world and the real world and that the two do not coalesce or meet. There is a need for youngsters to realize the difference between the two and also understand that while they play an online game for enjoyment, the game is an artificial world and cannot become a reality.

4. Very often teenagers try to emulate in reality what happens in an online game and there is a need for a clear mental distinction between the real and the virtual world.

5. Youngsters may express unfulfilled needs and emotions via a game they play and the character they imbibe while playing these games. Parents need to understand the games their children play and speak to them about the online characters they assume and why they do so. If the child expresses unfulfilled desires and emotions via these characters (avatars) and games, one must try to help the child fulfil those needs in real life rather than in the virtual world.

Plus!

• What institutions can do to address the Blue Whale Challenge problem

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