Mental Health Ravaged by Technology

I watched ITV's Tonight programme last week which featured an experiment where year 10s (that's 14 year olds to you and I) we're required to give up their luxuries, everything from their TVs, ipods and mobile phones right through to make-up.

I was expecting to see a bunch of spoilt teens moaning about how miserable life was, but instead I found myself wondering how we got here; at what point did childhood slip away?

The stress the young girls felt about not wearing make-up is an angst I remembered having during my acne riddled early twenties - but I had an excuse right?

The focus of the show was about helping boost self confidence, getting the youngsters (boys and girls) to worry less about image and enjoy living life.

They all struggled with losing their phones, and one lad really struggled with what to do in his spare time with no laptop. Of course what they found was that they became more social, with family and friends, and opened themselves up to new experiences. One girl even did her homework whilst killing time before a party because she couldn't preen herself in the same way.

This weekend our servers changed over meaning email was down and my Blackberry didn't work. Whilst I make every effort NOT to check my work email in my spare time, this weekend was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Having the access to those emails taken away from me relived that pressure valve and I actually found that I switched off.

So maybe all these gadgets and gizmos are bad for us, adding to our stress levels whether it's because you're anxious that you can't afford the coolest, or you're always on at work.

I then watched another programme, The Incredible Human Journey, and pondered about how the people of Siberia managed to organise the annual reindeer festival when they live such nomadic lifestyles...

Technology - can't live with it, can't live without it.

P.S. Looks like a similar social experiment of bling binning went on in the US