Helena Hansen, MD, PhD<\/a>, director of UCLA\u2019s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.<\/p>\nKeynote speakers at the summit addressed AI, social connection and self-empowerment, while breakout sessions included discussions about eating disorders, dating, substance use, phone detox and breathwork. Here are some of the day\u2019s top takeaways:<\/p>\n
Beware of FOPO: Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, a psychology professor at Columbia University, said that rather than FOMO, or fear of missing out, we ought to be more aware of FOPO: fear of people\u2019s opinions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust think about how much your FOPO might be holding you back in your life,\u201d Dr. Kaufman said. \u201cAnd just that inner contemplation should be enough for you to change your life, because there\u2019s so many things we don\u2019t go after because we have debilitating FOPO.\u201d<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t need to feel like we\u2019re the best \u2013 or what he called \u201cnarcissistic self-esteem\u201d \u2013 but it\u2019s helpful to acknowledge our own worth, recognize our good qualities and develop self-belief in the skills and talents we\u2019ve cultivated. When we have that \u2013 dignity and self-respect, without needing everyone to like us \u2013 FOPO is less of a concern.<\/p>\n
Self-reflection is most effective in community: \u201cWhen we try to self-reflect alone, we sometimes ruminate,\u201d said Ira Bedzow, PhD, executive director of the Emory University Purpose Project. \u201cBut when we self-reflect with people that we trust \u2026 (it) allows us to hold ourselves accountable to different ways of seeing and different ways of hearing and different ways of being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening up about our experiences and listening to others are skills we can develop, Dr. Bedzow said.<\/p>\n
He invited students to participate in what he called a \u201cfishbowl exercise,\u201d where four students sat in a small circle, surrounded by a dozen or so students forming a larger circle. Those in the inner circle answered such questions as: \u201cWhat stops you from being you today?\u201d and \u201cWhat helps you feel most like you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Within minutes, the group in the small circle (the fishbowl), were sharing intimately about their life challenges as those in the outer circle nodded in understanding.<\/p>\n
After the exercise, one participant said, \u201cI felt like I wasn\u2019t alone, that it wasn\u2019t just me who feels that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another remarked on how \u201cpersonal\u201d it felt to share face-to-face with others, even strangers.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t let AI crush your creativity:\u00a0Theoretical neuroscientist\u00a0Vivienne Ming, PhD, has been studying artificial intelligence for more than 20 years. And while she said \u201cit\u2019s reasonable to be concerned\u201d about the fast-growing technology, it can also help humans become better problem-solvers when used strategically.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smartest thing on the planet today are humans and machines working together creatively,\u201d Dr. Ming said. \u201cWhat gets more valuable in humans as machines get smarter? Our ability to explore the unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour unique voice is literally your value to the world \u2026 but most of us for most of our lives have been taught to not be unique,\u201d she continued. \u201cBe your own person. Celebrate being different. It is genuinely, measurably, truly valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a breakout session called \u201cPhone Detox? IYKYK: Living Your Story IRL\u201d led by Don Grant, PhD, students shared their frustrations with AI compromising academic work, art and creativity.<\/p>\n
\u201cArt is a translation of human experience,\u201d one participant said. \u201cWhen people use AI, they diminish their own human experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Grant urged them, as \u201cthe last generation to remember a world before AI,\u201d to remember the power of imagination and creativity \u2013 and to act on it.<\/p>\n
Remember that social media distorts perceptions:\u00a0Stuart B. Murray, PhD, PsyD<\/a>,\u00a0who directs the Eating Disorders Program and Translational Research in Eating Disorders Program at UCLA, asked the students in his breakout session to take a spontaneous selfie and edit it to conform with society\u2019s beauty standards. All 20 girls in the room immediately got to work, thickening their hair, slimming their faces, plumping their lips.<\/p>\n\u201cThe pressure to look like what we present on social media can be crippling,\u201d Dr. Murray said. \u201cWe now know that social media use is part of a causal pathway into an eating disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adolescents and young adults are most at risk of developing an eating disorder, he said, with one in three students on college campuses exhibiting clinically meaningful eating-disorder symptoms. More than 4 million people in California will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.<\/p>\n
Even for those who don\u2019t develop anorexia or bulimia, the ubiquity of modified images online distorts what we consider normal, making us feel worse about ourselves. Remembering that, he and other speakers said, might inspire us to log off occasionally and spend time in the real world with people who love us as we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask the digital natives of Gen Z about the source of their biggest mental health challenges, and most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-334783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}