The impact of digitalisation of our daily life is not yet visible. However, it is linked to a decline in mental health, especially among young people. Even though anyone exposed to social media or online platforms can experience changes in behavior, young adults are the main consumers of the digital industry that has rapidly integrated in our routines.
Amanay held a focus group with youth professionals during the project Poder TIC, which aimed to exchange experiences and best practices in youth mental health. Our team members led a workshop on mental health tools available on the Island.
The geographical barriers are part of the reality of living in Fuerteventura, therefore young people have less access to in person mental health services. This leaves options like:
- Telephone help line
- Videocall psychological therapy
- Online psychological help programs
- Emotional management apps
- Public Health Services (when available)
- Private Foundation Services
- Youth Center as safe spaces.
This happened during June of 2025 and we noticed something striking: we didn’t know enough about AI based mental health tools in general. And we knew even less about tools directed to younger collectives. Nevertheless, we agreed on the fact that healthy use of ITC tools can influence wellbeing. Example of healthy ITC use include a positive approach towards tech consumption:
- Creativity: participating in online initiatives that promote well being
- Emotional awareness: which means talking about what and how technology affects us.
- Simplicity: be very mindful of who we follow online, what we share just as the app we download.
Mental health is not the absence of problems but the presence of coping mechanisms to manage emotions, go through experiences and seek help when needed.
We can’t deny a great option to tackle mental wellbeing lack of services and professionals are digital mental health services. Access to mental health services is limited in general but has seen an ally in digital platforms when it comes to prevention. On the other side of the coin, mainstreaming the use of AI turned out to be dangerous for even very general health doubts. So a study exploring societal implications of digital mental health technologies highlights interesting insights. Some examples of AI based tool are: specific mobile apps, chatbots and mental health monitoring or risk prediction algorithms
These tools are not magical, they are fed with active and passive sources of information. Active sources of information will be provided to the app or platform by the user, like for example your personal data. But passive sources of information don’t need the user to do any specific action, just give permission, for example general mobile phone, internet and social media usage, voice/keystroke characteristics, sleep patterns, location information.
Data related ethical issues arise and we will definitely go back to them: AI objectivity, algorithm bias, the opaqueness of algorithmic inferences and issues of false positives .
For now, the review of scientific literature identified the following challenges:
1) changes to mental healthcare
2) the effect of population-based monitoring including algorithm-triggered interventions and surveillance.
(3) commodification (this essentially means something becomes a commodity or something that can be bought and sold even though they were not originally a product)
Reference: Stein, O. A., & Prost, A. (2024). Exploring the societal implications of digital mental health technologies: A critical review. SSM – Mental Health, 6, 100373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2024.100373
