Health just isn't what it was once – the absence of sickness.
Ask any teenager today what it means to them to be healthy, and also you're prone to hear about broad areas of their lives that they are “working on.”
This can include emotional health, aesthetic health, fitness, nutrition, social health, financial health, social media health, mental health, spiritual health… the list goes on.
When I used to be an adolescent within the Eighties, health wasn't something that I or my friends gave much thought to. We figured it was something you either had, or unfortunately lost.
In contrast, today's youth see health as something they will “grow out of” and may already work on. Health has develop into an investment. And, by extension the method I call “health,” it has develop into an increasingly diverse one.
Beyond Dr. Google
In my recent research, I asked 235 young New Zealanders aged 14-24 to discuss how they use digital technology as a part of understanding their health. The results inform my recent book, About Health: Transforming Life into Health.
Some of the findings weren't unexpected: Teens discussed Googling their symptoms and self-diagnosing anything from a sore throat.
They also talked about using online quizzes and various web sites and forums to trace their mental health, including self-diagnosing with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
But while invoking the worth of using “Dr. Google,” he also spoke of the subtle strategies he uses to find out which types of online and offline knowledge are trustworthy.
They described how they triangulate online results, determine when to envision with medical professionals, and regularly compare their understanding of health information with friends, siblings, or parents.
Perhaps more unexpectedly, their definitions of what it means to be healthy. So much in order that the role of trying healthy sports of their lives seems almost limitless for some.
Things that a generation ago were considered necessary but not necessarily a part of being healthy – reminiscent of friendships, beauty, having a way of community, doing well at school, creating moments of “down time” or rest – are actually included on this broader concept of health.
Not having this stuff isn't any longer seen as sad or unlucky, but actively harmful to 1's health.
The Ethical Dimension of Health
In a rustic often stereotyped for its rugged but sometimes cavalier “she'll be fine” ethos, young people openly worry about their very own and other people's physical health in ways at odds with previous generations.
Much has been written concerning the twenty first century give attention to self-improvement. But young people also describe eagerly helping others with health plans or “trips,” Googling mental health issues in order that they may help diagnose friends, and even taking their parents along.
Indeed, mental and emotional health particularly are framed as areas where young people see the role of race to be able to promote greater transparency and social acceptance.
Health takes on an ethical dimension as young people describe investing in their very own and others' health as a method to achieving the “good life”. Indeed, not acting on one's health was often portrayed as morally improper.
Through the strategy of health health, health has come to cover a much wider territory than a generation. So, is it even attainable?
Or, given the many alternative components of health — from being mindful of 1's time on social media to drinking enough water, from constructing meaningful friendships to logging in with Map Myron — is it an illusion that nobody can possibly fulfill?
Although it could appear so at first glance, the young people I interviewed suggest otherwise.
While some appeared truly overwhelmed by the quantity of vital health “work” they faced, others noted the necessity for “balance” and pathways (sometimes multiple) toward implementing those features of health that seemed most meaningful and achievable.
Finding the true balance
In my book I suggest that a shift to such holistic views of health not only helps us recognize the numerous things that affect our well-being, but sheds light on how the mind and body are interconnected – how our mental well-being can affect our physical health and vice versa.
The downside is that it could feel overwhelming and distract from other things we value and wish or need to do. These should not necessarily good for our health but are nevertheless socially meaningful.
This may include devoting time to caring for relations, for instance, moderately than working on our physical fitness. or sacrificing our time or well-being to advertise or protect a greater cause.
The trick, at the tip of the book, could also be to adopt a perspective that embraces the merits of a broader theory of health while also encouraging oneself to look beyond it.
Just as young individuals are recognizing the importance of working on themselves while also emphasizing the importance of their relationships with others, perhaps we are able to all discover a greater type of “balance.”