{"title":"Technology at the Rescue? Online Games, Adolescent Mental Health and the COVID Pandemic.","authors":"Miguel Angel Gonzalez-Torres","doi":"10.1057/s11231-024-09445-x","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The COVID pandemic has had a major impact on the mental health of the population, especially on female adolescents. Eating disorders and gender identity problems have increased markedly. Online activities have also grown enormously during this period occupying a large portion of adolescents' time. We explore the use of social networking and online gaming by adolescent girls and boys. We discuss their possible influence on different levels of psychological distress in boys and girls in the face of the pandemic. We propose that online games, mainly used by young boys, might offer them some emotional protection through mechanisms related to the body and its experience, to the group dynamics of competition, collaboration, and hierarchy, to the possibility of expressing aggression, and to the construction of a clearer and more stable identity. An unprejudiced look at new technologies is mandatory, if we are to avoid projecting our fears and expectations onto them.</p>","PeriodicalId":52458,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Journal of Psychoanalysis","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-024-09445-x","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"Psychology","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The COVID pandemic has had a major impact on the mental health of the population, especially on female adolescents. Eating disorders and gender identity problems have increased markedly. Online activities have also grown enormously during this period occupying a large portion of adolescents' time. We explore the use of social networking and online gaming by adolescent girls and boys. We discuss their possible influence on different levels of psychological distress in boys and girls in the face of the pandemic. We propose that online games, mainly used by young boys, might offer them some emotional protection through mechanisms related to the body and its experience, to the group dynamics of competition, collaboration, and hierarchy, to the possibility of expressing aggression, and to the construction of a clearer and more stable identity. An unprejudiced look at new technologies is mandatory, if we are to avoid projecting our fears and expectations onto them.
期刊介绍：
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis is an international psychoanalytic quarterly founded in 1941 by Karen Horney. The journal''s purpose is to be an international forum for communicating a broad range of contemporary theoretical, clinical, professional and cultural concepts of psychoanalysis and for presenting related investigations in allied fields. It is a fully peer-reviewed journal, which welcomes psychoanalytic papers from all schools of thought that address the interests and concerns of scholars and practitioners of psychoanalysis and contribute meaningfully to the understanding of human experience. The journal publishes original papers, special issues devoted to a single topic, book reviews, film reviews, reports on the activities of the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Center, and comments.
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