Stop! Your Mental Health Always Comes First.
And let me tell you why.
Hello! Let me introduce myself first. I am Elizabeth Serjantov. I go by Liz. I am a 20 year old rising Junior at Binghamton University, studying Graphic Design and Marketing.
I’ve lived in NYC all my life. Even if you’re not from here, you know just how expensive this city is. Having an immigrant parent, it’s been more clear my entire life how difficult it is to afford a lifestyle thats been “cleaner.” We can see examples of this when we look at organic foods and products, gyms, and overall wellness products. For example, in the article “What’s the Cost Difference Between Organic & Non-Organic Food?” by Jeff Campbell, he states: “But if you want the benefits of not eating food grown with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, GMOs or growth hormones, it will cost you. On average, organically grown food costs 10–20% more than non-organic.” This is just one example on how it’s sometimes harder to get products that are considered “cleaner.” Of course, healthier options are always going to be more pricey because of the quality. But it doesn’t mean we can’t find cheaper alternatives. That’s one of my goals that I promise to students. From my own experiences in the city, I’m going to show ways students can participate in putting their mind and body first.
Living a healthier lifestyle doesn’t come from just eating and living better. This is why another goal of mine is to expose the toxicity of social media. I want to educate people on how our phones could be worsening our mental health. Students today are heavily influenced by sites like TikTok and Instagram. Having owned both of these apps, and reguarly using them, I know just how bad these apps can be for teenagers and young students. These apps have been proven to have been associated with a rise in eating disorders, depression, anxiety in teens: “. . . 47.5% increase (depression in adolescents) since 2000 (Miron, Yu, Wilf-Miron, & Kohane, 2019). One suggested cause for this rise in adolescent depression and suicide is the advent of social media (SM) (McCrae, Gettings, & Purssell, 2017; Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2018).” (National Library of Medicine). Especially after the pandemic, we have to realize that our phones could be hurting us, without us even realizing. I want to later go into detail about what is normalized on social media that is extremely unhealthy for teenagers to be viewing. For instance celebrities advertising products that are unaffordable and extremely misleading, and other influencers setting unrealistic standards for health and wellness. Social media is a great way for companies to prey on our insecurities and try to make us pay for more than we need. I hope to educate students on what to avoid on social media, and when to put down the phone.
I hope that by suggesting affordable alternatives and tips on living a healthier lifestyle, students like me can build habits for their entire life that will promote a good mental health and physical health. I’ve lived in this city my whole life, and I am still on my journey in building good habits, so I will be taking this blog with me these few weeks.
I hope with these posts students like me can agree that a good mental health means you’re able to become your best self.
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