It’s no secret that listening to politics can make people miserable. Christopher Ojeda, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Merced, recently explored this relationship between politics and mental health issues. According to him, an external locus of control brings unhappiness. If someone is directly affected by political action (for instance, having one’s immigration status changed or losing one’s health insurance), their attention will naturally be occupied by events outside her control and lose awareness of the present moment.
A recent PLOS One study discovered that politics was a major stressor for millions of Americans during the Trump administration: thanks to politics, people reported they slept less, experienced more stress, anxiety, and depression, and even had more frequent thoughts of suicide with all the systemic changes and policies Trump was pushing forward. Interestingly though, those who experienced the worst mental health effects were consistently amongst the youth population.
For a democracy to function, there needs to be engaged and informed citizens — that’s just common sense. But if doing so leads to fatigue and stress and harms one’s relationships, that doesn’t seem like a particularly healthy thing to do. If young people specifically feel they must withdraw from politics to preserve their well-being, we stand to lose the contributions many of them could potentially bring to solving our most pressing problems, like gun violence and climate change. They will inherit this country and planet and all contemporary political issues will fall in their hands eventually — it’s no wonder that the younger generation is facing increased mental health problems as they are burdened with resolving this mess!
Despite these alarming signals, there are signs of hope in sight. In fact, some lawmakers are making greater efforts towards listening to young people and integrating their feedback in decision-making so they can see that their actions have tangible political consequences. All in all, those currently in power need to ensure that young people have greater say and more opportunities for political engagement and empowerment in order to leave their mark on the messy field of politics.
Listening to this podcast reminded me of an incident that took place many moons ago. One day, I entered an online discussion to do my social studies homework with my friend. Inspired by reading the points in the textbook, he shared with me how former President Trump was putting the country on the right path by getting rid of “the cancerous immigrants.” As an immigrant myself, I initially reacted angrily, recollecting how difficult it was for my family and I to immigrate to the U.S. Before countering in rage, I asked him why he felt this way. He retorted that “many are taking good jobs away from hard-working Americans.” He described how his father was a long-time employee and lost his job recently because the company decided to outsource his father’s job, and how President Trump would bring jobs like his father’s back to the country. I had nothing left to say as his motivations mirrored mine — struggling to find a livelihood in this country. After contemplating on what he said for a while, I learned that it’s always better to listen before making snap judgements. People are rational; if they seem irrational to you, then you don’t have all the details yet and it’s not always about you. This conversation helped me realize that as much as people seem to be one-sided (e.g., anti-immigrant), people tend to have more motivations driving their decision-making, so it’s best to listen to the whole context. Additionally, I learned it’s helpful to listen to people’s perspective without mixing in my own feelings or opinions to truly understand where they are coming from.