Wednesday 4 September 2019

Avoiding the Toxic Tsunami

Last May I was speaking to a group of our students about their future. Usually engaging and interested, they seemed to treat the conversation with some derision, and were, well, almost snorting at my excited optimism for them - no more so than when I asked them to imagine what they would be doing in three decades from now. They actually refused to answer (!), and instead asked me back ‘haven’t you heard about climate change?’ I saw exactly the same sentiment on a US news clip; a politician asked some children what they thought the world would be like when they grew up - they replied ‘burning’.

The future seems grim to these young adults. If they think their lives will be decades shorter than they should be, or that the world will literally be on fire, that is overwhelmingly and pervasively bleak. I can imagine why, to these young people, little else will really matter, and I wonder about their mental health. Might this attitude, if widespread, be linked to what seems to be a rise in mental health issues we see across the globe?

When I thought about this, I was initially quite skeptical; but being terrified by global events is hardly new; Stephanie Buck’s fascinating article what do you want to be if you grow up? looks at the psychological effect of the nuclear threat during in the Cold War, but the difference today is that there’s no one single thing, but a litany of distressing events. Here’s a list of headlines on my BBC app today, as I write on September 4:

 Brexit: what just happened? - Devastation in hurricane-hit Bahamas - How Greenland is melting - SA President condemns anti-foreigner violence - Walmart changes gun policy after mass shootings - Heroin worth GBP120 million seized in biggest UK haul - Police begin investigating boat fire victims - West may be responsible for Yemen war crimes - The 'code of silence' killing US police officers - The beach strewn with needles and blood - Brazil president to miss Amazon fires summit -Argentina imposes currency controls - Footballer’s sister ‘hit and racially abused’

Which one sells more?  I think we know the answer.      Source

There’s not a lot to be happy about there! And even more worryingly, these are not just isolated events; each one seems to be a specific instance of much broader global issues.  A headline like The How Greenland is melting?  might be of limited interest if it were not just another manifestation of dramatic climate change. Similarly Footballer’s sister ‘hit and racially abused’ is terrible, but all the more so for being a reflection of the rise of extremist views across the world.

So what are the issues that are underlying these and other bad news stories? I started to make a list.

Climate Change and Climate Change Denial - Environmental catastrophes such as plastic in the ocean - Species extinction - Lack of connection to nature - Rise of extremism and associated terrorism - Threat from AI and the future of work - The unstoppable rise of the gig economy -Threats from globalisation - Toxic political environment - Debasement of media and relentless news cycle - Increasing inequality -Lack of moral leadership (Church? Politicians?) - Increasing political authoritarianism - Demographics of living longer but in extended poor health and loneliness - Marriages no longer expected to be forever - Toxic Masculinity - Widespread access to pornography - Sense that parents are failing their children

 Even a lot of entertainment seems to predict of a bleak near future - look at The Handmaid’s Tale, Years and Years, Black Mirror, Children of Men and so on. If this is the pervasive backdrop to growing up, horror and alienation might be an appropriate response.

If this is right, then no one thing is to blame for troubling issues of student mental health.  Maybe it's just the effect of the relentless overall narrative that we see everyday.  And given that is not just schools, but society at large that is seeing metal health issues on the rise (here is some data on Universities, for example) this seems like a compelling possibility.

 David Foster Wallace coined the idea of total noise, which he describes as the tsunami of available fact, context, and perspective... the seething static of every particular thing and experience. He wrote that in 2007 to express something about information overload - but his tsunami was just overwhelming in volume; these days the very water in the tsunami feels toxic.

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There are two reasons that I have not included the usual scapegoat - screen time -  in my list above.  Firstly, the latest research seems to indicate its effect is minor at best. But secondly, I wonder if it’s both social and traditional media that are somewhat to blame for this toxic tsunami. It’s the usual critique of the business of news; the if it bleeds it leads trope is well known but shows no sign of falling away. And it seems to me that both tabloid and quality elements of traditional media stoke these fears far worse than social media . As journalist James O’Brian has written - it’s always been easier to sell tickets for the ghost machine than for the speak-your-weight machine.

It would be foolish and shortsighted to deny the very real and very serious nature of global challenges. We have to face reality - but that then also entails fair coverage of the less-scary, often non-glamorous but nevertheless amazing progress that is happening.  And once you look closely, the toxic tsunami that is most people's daily newsfeed is not the entire picture. The world really is getting better in many ways. If you look it’s not hard to find, for example 16 bad things that are getting better (8 here and 8 here) or 16 good things that are getting better (8 here and 8 here), or to read Hans Rosling’s or Stephen Pinker’s evidence-based masterpieces which provide great grounds for a realistic optimism.  None of this is to deny the world’s problems, but the reality is far more balanced than the everyday fire-hydrant feed of doom. 

The business of schools has to be develop young people who will improve the world. Unless they have the belief that this is possible, we will fail. It therefore seems to me that changing the narratives we have about the future is a necessary step in that direction.  That's not an easy thing to do, as most of the time we are not even aware of the narratives that govern our perceptions.  I think we need to think more about the way we do or do not, should or should not, let the toxic tsunami be the dominant narrative.  Next week I will write a bit more on how we are thinking about this.


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