“Review on “mental health and new technologies”:analysis of social networks and video games in the early stages of development as modular factors of positive mental health”

Abstract

The new technologies nowadays have become a part of our daily life, from the first stages of the evolutive development. Their incidence does not only adjust the way we relate with others, how we behave or in which we invest our free time in this post-pandemic period. The naturalizing of the digital era has propitiated that mostly the social media and the videogames over all affects directly on the mental health of all the usuaries. But socio-demographic groups are particularly vulnerable to the impact of their use, namely children and young people. Simply because they are developing beings and do not have the full potential of their psychosocial resources. Hence, because of its frequency of use and its impact at the level of evolutionary development we can select two subtypes that generate more concern from those first contacts: social networks, with all their risks of use, and video games that reach more and more children and that can lead to traumatic consequences in the form of addiction in the most serious cases. Another important element to note is the asymmetry of formation by age. Not all adults have the development of satisfactory digital competence. Social networks imply an optimal knowledge of their operation, and therefore “at a parental level” it is vital to know which social networks are most used by minors, because depending on each exposure and use of platforms will face different risks. We note that the variability is extreme, and that they are not used in the same way, so the child or young person has to adopt very different roles depending on what social environment it develops, even though the networks of friends are the same. In the case of video games, the repercussions are not only at the social or emotional level, but go beyond creating a “disorder of their own” in cases where the times or situations associated with their use are not properly managed. It is important above all the supervision of parents or adult managers, as well as the knowledge of the type of video game used in each educational stage. In addition, it is necessary to evaluate the characteristics of certain types of game that usually use a reward system more frequent than others. Hence, the training of adults in this sector is an essential recommendation to remain “balanced references” of the new generations. An adult cannot share, monitor, contain, enjoy, something he does not know and does not handle. That is the challenge of the 21st century in this society for current families facing the digital needs of their children.