In an age where many teenagers have social media, reposting and trends are destined to happen. This causes the sharing of thoughts and ideas to spread easily.
Charles Logan ‘22 believes that sharing an opinion on a certain subject on social media is important because it initiates a conversation. He also thinks that slacktivism gives a sense of false self-gratification.
“I think sharing the general idea of people and putting where you stand out there is good,” Logan said. “ I think the problem with reposting slacktivism posts is people feel like they’re doing something and actually care when they aren’t doing anything.”
Laila Panzenhagen ‘21 thinks that on a community scale reposting can be beneficial when action can be taken. She believes that in recent events many people have taken to social media to spread awareness about mental health, trying to normalize it.
“Reposting is a people’s way to do whatever they can to make themselves feel heard and get the information out,” Panzenhagen said. “I know that my knowledge of mental health has deepened because of social media, but there are other things that could work better.”
According to school phycologist, Lisa Khoury, there are multiple mental health establisments like Kevin Song, the Family Center, and the National Suicide Awareness organization that help out with informing the public on mental health issues. She says that it may be easier for students to use social media to express their thoughts.
“When people are connected with those on social media, then oftentimes they share things and it starts a conversation,” Khoury said.
Morgen Bocci ‘20 believes that sharing on social media is a positive because it can range from sharing a piece of art to something motivational. She thinks that when it comes to art, the person reposting should credit the artist, but when it comes to other posts, the credit can get lost if it becomes a trend.
“They circulate because of their hive mind,” Bocci said. “People see something done by someone they follow and then they do it too.”
According to Panzenhagen, a post can get overshared which may minimize the purpose of the post.
“People can get tired of looking at the posts and then avoid the issue all together,” Panzenhagen said. “I know that has happened to me. I’ll get so annoyed at everyone posting about certain issues where I then just stop following the issue.”
During this school year, we’ve lost four students in the GPPSS and sharing posts promoting mental health and healing have helped the community Logan said.
“North and South and the community as a whole is actually raising awareness about what happened and about how we, as a student body are going to change because that’s something that we can change on a community level,” Logan said. “People are trying to show solidarity as a community.”
According to Khoury, the biggest aspect for people to understand is that mental health issues are real medical conditions that need to be dealt with..
“I think talking about mental health issues and talking about sadness is a positive thing to some degree, but I also like the aspect of sharing in a positive way, and sharing to help support and to normalize mental health issues,” Khoury said. “Everybody has times in their lives when they need support.”