Everyone should check on their mental health >» When was the last time you went to see a psychologist? Tania Arora Staff Writer fter 23 years of existence, studying nd practicing in the areas of communication, public speaking, business, marketing, and public relations—I still often fumble, run out of words, bail out, blatantly lie, or stay quiet when it comes to expressing my feelings. My parents still struggle to understand this aspect of me. Friends misunderstand me, and over the years I have practiced the art of ignorance when it comes to what people might think of me or my actions because I cannot explain it to them. If you are facing something like this, let me tell you that it is completely normal. Be it youth, kids, adults, or old folks— at this point, almost every other person has a gym membership or involvement in recreational activity. We tend to invest so much in improving our physical health and appearance. But out of the seven billion people on this planet, how many can say that they have the same level of concern for their mental health? How many of us pay regular visits to a psychologist, or even sit and talk our heart out to someone close tous? Almost every single person today has some type of mental issue or insecurity. We drag ourselves out to the gym, yoga, or sports, and we need to be concerned about our mental well-being in the same way. If you are facing one of the following issues, it must be made a matter of concern for you to check on your mental well-being. Sit and do absolutely nothing for hours: we are not talking about procrastination here. If you find yourself sitting or lying somewhere without any purpose, staring at walls, and doing or thinking nothing for hours on a regular basis, then you, my friend, must do something about it. You may be scared of people: cancelling on plans once in a while is fine, but if you have a tendency to do that every time because you feel scared of talking to people or meeting them ina social gathering, being judged, teased or anything else, you must work on it and analyze the reason behind it. I’ve known people that are afraid of living alone, too scared to do anything in life by themselves. They need someone by their side every time they go out, travel, watch a movie, sleep, walk, and talk. I agree that people need someone to talk to, but it’s important to have and appreciate time to yourself, watching a movie alone, traveling alone, or even sleeping alone. A big issue is expressing your feelings. If you do not talk it out, it is going to build inside you and might explode one day at the wrong time and in front of the wrong person, who you did not want to hurt. There is no point in gathering and holding any kind of feelings you have for someone. Say it and get done with it. Not all that glitters is ‘gold play button’ » Is YouTube's popular content getting worse? EG Manilag Staff Writer « Ds: forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe to my channel!” For most of us, YouTube is our preference for leisure on the internet. Personally, I love to watch funny prank videos. Watching this kind of stuff calms down my brain from all the stressors— especially school. However, I feel most of YouTube’s mainstream content is getting worse. From misogynistic content, clickbait thumbnails, ridiculous challenges, to dangerous pranks—I’m pretty sure it’s only going to get worse. Let’s start off with misogyny. What I really hate most about YouTube's content is the amount of “gold digger pranks” there are. I think it’s obvious that most of these videos are scripted, but it’s just awful to watch videos like these gaining popularity and views because they can perpetuate some harmful stereotypes about women. Even if it’s scripted, the portrayal of women being lured by cash or some luxury cars is horrible. The creators think that it’s okay to disrespect women for the sake of views. Sadly, some people buy into it, and we can see that this is evident in the comments section of these videos. Another thing is the all-powerful clickbait thumbnails. They’re not only misleading, but also sometimes inappropriate. To gain views and popularity, some YouTubers even put gratuitous cleavage in their thumbnails. We know that nudity is strictly prohibited in YouTube's policy, so it’s weird that some are still tricked by this, but I guess it’s true aa that “the flesh is weak.” I think the real concern here is the children on YouTube, because they might scroll past these inappropriate thumbnails while browsing. Ina fight for that gold play button— an award for channels that reach or surpass one million subscribers—many YouTubers upload videos that are nonsense. Honestly, it’s like they're so out of ideas that they'll just upload whatever videos they can. Some YouTubers simply stick into the inappropriate stuff because it’s deemed to be the greatest clickbait. It’s sad that many are not using YouTube as a platform for creativity, instead it’s nowa race for views. Viral challenges are also one of the things that make YouTube a scary platform; such a large media platform can easily influence CD the youth, especially if it looks “fun.” An example of one of these viral challenges is the “In My Feelings” challenge where people get out of moving cars and dance to a popular Drake song of the same name. In this challenge, some people were seriously injured. More recently, we have the “24-hour Overnight Challenge.” The challenge entails a YouTuber(s) hiding in stores, establishments, or their friend’s house without them knowing it. Isn’t that ridiculous? I just hope that most of these videos are scripted—because if they’re not, it’s a serious offence they’re committing and posting publicly. It’s an invasion of privacy and incredibly stupid. Another thing that bothers me about YouTube (which is not about the content) Still of YouTube video by TopNo is the number of ads. Advertisers may say that YouTube is helpful for it promotes and markets their businesses leading to increased sales, but what about us, the viewers? Research shows that people think Facebook and YouTube have the most annoying ads, and it’s no surprise why. Because of ads on our screen are getting longer and unavoidable, we tend to become annoyed and frustrated. Of course, with all that said, YouTube still has a lot to offer. I’m forever in debt with the number of free tutorials I’ve watched. I’m sure some of you have something to be thankful for on the platform as well. However, because of the types of content that dominate it, I think YouTube's golden age is now over—anad it’s only becoming worse.