Mental Health and Political Polarization - causal or mere correlation?

It is no secret that the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis in America, but it more so highlights a rising trend amongst the American population since the early 2010s - rapidly increasing rates of reported depression and anxiety. The outlook is bleak; the statistics, astonishing.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, a quarter of adults in the US have reported symptoms of emotional distress, one of the highest rates of anxiety and depression among 11 high income countries. The CDC reports that 40% of Americans with severe mental disorders do not receive any treatment, and suicidal ideation among adults is increasing. There is a clear rise in despair and panic across the country, with its effects manifesting into the increasing polarization of American politics.

One might assume a direct causal effect between decreasing mental stability and the spread of false information on the internet with recent political upheavals, but I have a hunch that this issue goes deeper than that. Let me elaborate.

I recently read a WSJ article titled “To Be Young and Pessimistic in America,” which provided a look into Gen Z’s apparent loneliness and ‘pessimistic prospects of the world.’ The article links this phenomenon to an obvious cause - the rise of tech, social media, and its cognitive effects on the youth.

One may point out that previous generations have survived through more fatal stressors - such as bomb sheltering drills, a war draft, etc. - and yet, recent statistics have shown that Gen Z struggles with mental health issues more than any generation before. Between 2005 and 2017, rates of major depression increased by 52% in adolescents and 63% in young adults. Suicide rates for girls aged 15 to 19 doubled between 2007 and 2015, marking a great departure from mental health trends in the early 2000s. In short, the kids have not been doing too well lately, despite them facing less fatal stressors.

Why is that? Well, an easy answer would refer to the way in which social media has changed communication styles among the youth, replacing online interactions with face to face social interactions. As a result, Gen Z engages in less genuine and meaningful interactions on a daily basis. Furthermore, social media apps that Gen Zers use on a daily basis such as TikTok and Instagram are less about content creation and appreciation, and more about attracting engagement. The algorithm on the app rewards posts with high engagement, which turns the platform into more or less of a popularity contest. As such, the youth feel this pressure from competition and scrutiny permeating past school doors, and onto every facet of their lives they choose to share online.

The article argues that Gen Z’s anxiety causes their reluctance to experiment with sex, alcohol, and intimacy, as well as casting an overall pessimistic worldview. She then extends this argument to the youth's radical political views:

“Today’s young people are more likely to attribute hardship to bad luck or other factors beyond their control. People who feel powerless might be more inclined to support social and political upheaval, and today’s youths are more politically radical than past generations, including baby boomers. In 1970, according to the American Freshman study, 2.9% of entering college students identified as far left; in 2019, 5.5% did—an all-time high. Ms. Twenge adds that “the extremes at both ends of the political spectrum have increased. So you get more polarization.” The share of college freshmen identifying as far-right in 1970 was 0.8%. It peaked in 2004, when millennials were matriculating, at 2.2%, and has since fallen to 1.6%” (WSJ).

This is an interesting take on the noticeable shift in psychographics for Gen Z. While I agree with the author’s analysis of social media usage and its correlation with increased loneliness, I must disagree with her argument that it makes the youth more radical in their political stance. Instead, I would like to point to the profit motive and draw upon the effects of capitalism to explain this increased feeling of hopelessness, and then possibly generalize it to all Americans in the workforce.

The author’s statement that “young people are more likely to attribute hardship to back luck” or other external factors reminds me of Eric Hoffer’s book The True Believer. In this book, Hoffer provides a psychoanalysis of the internal and external factors that would lead an individual to join a radical mass movement, from which, I believe some points could be applied to the polarization of politics amongst the youth today. Hoffer argues that people who suffer from a lack of purpose and meaning in their lives, as well as feelings of rejection and loneliness, tend to be easily swayed into devoting their lives to a greater cause.

Clearly, the feelings of rejection and loneliness come from social media, as a simple lack of follower count or post engagement may be interpreted as rejection.

The next logical question to ask would then be - where is this lack of purpose and meaning coming from? To which, I would then point to Marxist theory on the alienation of labor. This feeling of alienation can take place in many forms - alienation from the self, others, product of labor, etc. While the rise of social media has caused an alienation from the self and others, capitalist mechanisms in this country have inarguably caused worker alienation from the product of labor, reducing the worth of American workers to merely filling a physical gap in the economy. Marx explains how capitalism creates a distance between a person and the fruits of their labor, as it assigns individuals to a simple fraction of the assembly line. Alienation, in this sense, means that one’s life-activities are not directed by oneself, but rather external forces.

Thus, the increased radicalization and political passion encapsulating this country in recent years cannot be solely attributed to the rise of social media. Rather, there is clearly something to be said about the market forces in this country feeding into this alienation and consequent feelings of hopelessness that perpetuate the radicalization of politics in recent years. As such, this argument and analysis should be extended to not only the youth, but all Americans in the workforce.