DMU's Digital Detox

By Millie Spooner, 22/01/20

Last week De Montfort University staff organised a 'Digital Detox' campaign for their students, raising awareness for mental health by cutting back on social media.

The movement was aimed at both staff and students to disconnect from social media for five days, starting from the 16th January till the 21st.

The campaign's goal was to introduce small changes to students' lifestyles, which would benefit their mental wellbeing; starting with less screentime.

Derrick Mensah, De Montfort University's Vice President of Activities, explained that "it was something the Vice-Chancellor brought up when mental health [topics] occurred... the conversations began, is it possible for us to go a whole week without social media?".

Derrick Mensah, DMU's Vice President of Activities

Mensah continued to emphasise the correlation between social media and poor mental health, as it brings many negative side effects e.g. sleep loss, eating disorders, stress, loneliness and anxiety.

In 2017 the Royal Society for Public Health carried out a survey regarding the issue and found the public to vote Instagram as the most harmful app for young people's minds.

Mensah added "you can have a false perception of belonging because you've got people liking your tweets, retweeting them and liking your pictures on Instagram. You feel like people know and care about you but really it's all fictional."

The university acknowledged social media's effect on the current generation of students, with 87% of millenials admitting to ignoring conversations for their phones.

When asked about the sociability of current students, Mensah replied: "They need to go out and make genuine relationships with people and I don't think students do that enough. They're more likely to stay at home than go to a lecture full of people they don't know..."

Belinda Campbell, a first-year Creative Writing student at DMU, strongly agreed that social media affects a student's mental health. She explained, "there's a lot of pressure in this modern era to look a certain way and if you don't, you can be looked down upon."

Boyana Borisova, a first-year architect student at DMU, added to this by delving into how unrealistic everything is on social media "people just start comparing themselves to what they see online, even though a large majority of it is fake".

Overall, the campaign has definitely highlighted to both staff and students that time away from social media is necessary for good mental wellbeing.

If you are currently struggling, De Montfort University offers counselling via MyGateaway. More information can be found here:

https://www.dmu.ac.uk/current-students/student-support/wellbeing-disability/counselling/index.aspx