Rethinking College (Literature Review 1)

 PBS has an ongoing series titled “Rethinking College.” They have a segment dedicated to COVID-19 and its impact on students. The news anchor opens by stating that “according to the CDC, three out of four Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 report poor mental health tied to the pandemic” (Sreenivasan, et al.). Varun Soni, a faculty member at University of Southern California (USC), says “before the pandemic, 65 percent of college students were wrestling with anxiety, 30 percent with a mental health condition, and 10 percent with thoughts of suicide” (Sreenivasan, et al.). These are overwhelming statistics. It’s no wonder why researchers and experts use terms like “epidemic” and “crisis” to describe the mental health challenges that American college students are facing.

The beginning of the segment tells the story of a student, who was living alone near the University of Texas campus and her journey with mental health. They get commentary from a variety of other students who describe how the pandemic has impacted their mental health.

Varun Soni, faculty member at USC, suggests that "recent American crises, combined with an overreliance on technology and social media, are making today's young people more anxious than ever before. And COVID isolation has made it worse" (Sreenivasan, et al.).

The article focuses mainly on depression, anxiety, and hightened isolation. Its important to understand what these terms mean. Depression can be defined many ways – one explanation is that depression is a mood disorder that involves persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities. Ultimately, depression is a result of a chemical imbalance in our brains. Anxiety is feelings of worry/fear that interfere with one’s daily activities. Symptoms include sweating, trouble concentrating, feeling nervous/restless, stress that is out of proportion to the impact of the event, and inability to set aside a worry/thought. We all experienced isolation during the pandemic and this is a familiar feeling to many of us. By definition, isolation or social isolation is the absence of social interactions or connections. 

This news report is going to be very beneficial to me because it provides statistics, stories/testimony from students, and more importantly, it talks about how big of a problem this was even before the pandemic. 

Sreenivasan, Hari, et al. “How the Pandemic Is Impacting College Students' Mental Health.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 19 Jan. 2021, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-pandemic-is-impacting-college-students-mental-