Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1339768
11 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 FEBRUARY 2021 OPINION Adulting through anxiety and insecurity governments have been tra- ditionally reluctant to ever improve employment condi- tions in any other single facet of the public service: teachers, University academics, doctors and nurses, and so on. It's like that old joke that starts: 'Wait- er, waiter, there's a fly in my soup!'… to which the waiter tes- tily replies (in one version, an- yhow): 'Not so loud, or the rest will be wanting one, too!' In turn, this might also ex- plain yet another of the Asso- ciation's complaints: 'Citizens', Depasquale wrote, 'demanded timely justice just as in the way it received other public servic- es, which likewise benefit from generous public investment…' There are plenty of examples to choose from. And just to stick to the previous automotive example, I'll mention only one. Traffic. As has been variously pointed out (among others, by myself last Wednesday) government's response to Malta's traffic woes has so far been limited to sim- ply expanding the existing road network: in other words, build- ing bigger, wider roads for cars to travel faster upon. And while that approach can be criticised for all sorts of rea- sons… 'stinginess' isn't exactly one of them. The Central Link project alone, for instance, cost an es- timated €55 million: of which government had to fork out 30%, with the rest financed by the EU. In this case, the stated aim was to "reduce travel times […] along the principal arterial road corridor in central Mal- ta" (note: I won't bother with the rest – 'whilst creating safer spaces for alternative modes of travel' – because it clearly belongs to the same realm as fairies, unicorns, dragons, and other inexistent superstitions). The question that arises, how- ever, is: if government was will- ing to spend so much money on 'speeding up the flow of traffic in Malta' – regardless of how short-term the acceleration may prove, or at what environmental cost – why isn't it just as willing to spend a little on 'speeding up the course of justice' while it's at it, too? In all probability, the answer would have to include the fact that – unlike the case with the judiciary – government is not committed to invest compa- rable amounts in all other sec- tors of the infrastructure, as it invests in roads (so much so that… um… it never does). And under those circumstanc- es, government can easily see what always seems so utterly in- visible in the case of Malta's jus- tice system: not to mention all the other sectors of the Public Service that are also crying out, in vain, for better employment conditions. Simply put: if you want a sys- tem – any system – to operate faster and more efficiently… sooner or later, you're going to have to invest a little money in- to it, too. CHANGING social structures have made the process of transitioning into adulthood trickier to manoeuvre nowadays than for any previous generation. Without pre-established pathways to direct development, with a generation of adults-in-training bred to believe anyone could become anything, that the world is their oyster, and with the easily-alienating and anxiety-in- ducing character of modern social life, it's no wonder statistics keep drawing alarming in- creases in anxiety, depression and suicide rates. The World Health Organization, in fact, iden- tifies depression as one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Coming of age in an era that is distinctly de-traditionalised and technologically advanced, millennials are facing a combination of identity confusion and social-media demands that may very easily lead to anxiety, insecurity, and even a sense of social isolation. As they grew older, confronted by the socioeconomic reality of the world and as the list of realistic options grew shorter, in came the need for recalibration of ex- pectations and the realisation that they will not be just everything they wanted to be. The anxieties, insecurities and existential con- cerns that accompany the entering of adulthood are becoming, for this generation of adults, exac- erbated by the constant presence of social media, which easily slips into unhealthy comparisons and fosters insecurity and competition. Studies, in fact, have found that social media use may be associated with declines in subjective well-be- ing and life satisfaction, and an increase in de- pressive symptoms. Millennials are the genera- tion that saw the birth of social media, bringing them a source of entertainment and a platform for social interaction that has now gone beyond previous confines. However, the influence that social media use may have on psychological ad- justment is not to be underestimated. Providing opportunities to participate in posi- tive social interactions, the online world opened a window onto a new way to interact. This how- ever also came at the hefty cost of constantly being surrounded by excessive stimuli and even more so, of having to engage with others not on- ly in person but also online, presenting oneself to a whole new dimension of social pressures and public scrutiny. Particularly due to the role that social media plays in how we view ourselves and others, today's society requires an ability to create and control one's image both online and in person. This, and the higher risk of negative behaviours, such as comparisons, in the increas- ing fluidity of modern society, can easily lead to unease, insecurity, and anxiety at the individual level. Transition into adulthood brings with it many challenges. For millennials, levelling up into an adult-pro version of themselves alongside the development of the online world has meant the addition of a whole new dimension of slalom- ing through ever-changing obstacles, to make it through sanely. When you add anxiety, depres- sion, unresolved childhood trauma or health challenges that growing up brings, becoming an adult can be especially tough. Coming to the realisation that life is mostly routine and mundane, that real life doesn't nec- essarily feel like a social media highlight reel; making peace with living a life that is by all ac- counts totally unspectacular means that with time, the expectations of the adults in training can realign to reduce the anxiety and pressure that come from unrealistic expectations. Find- ing pleasure in the normality of life and trying to live through it mindfully can help ease the burden. As things stand, the state of millennials' mental health going into the 2020s is looking grim. De- pression and suicide rates are on the rise among millennials, many of whom suffer loneliness, money stress and burnout. But there is a silver lining that millennials bring along with them, and that is that they are changing the way people look at mental health. This generation of adults is being more open about mental health issues and is a catalyst to destigmatising the challenges surrounding these silent difficulties. Bringing mental health issues to the table for discussion even through academic means such as the spectrum of courses offered by the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta, exploring ways to address them, developing ap- proaches to manage them, and being part of the solution means that millennials, and those they inspire along the way, could be the ones to break long-standings stigmas, leaving the world a bet- ter kind of different then they found it. The anxieties, insecurities and existential concerns that accompany the entering of adulthood are becoming, for this generation of adults, exacerbated by the constant presence of social media, which easily slips into unhealthy comparisons and fosters insecurity and competition Olga Formosa Olga Formosa is a psychologist and research officer at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing, University of Malta socialwellbeing@um.edu.mt