Mental Health in the Digital Age at Middlesex University

On Friday 8 November, I participated in a panel on “Mental Health in the Digital Age” organised by Middlesex University Mauritius.

During the session, we had the opportunity to discuss about ways to benefit from technology, especially social media and Artificial Intelligence tools, while ensuring that one remains mentally sound. It was a challenging panel for me as I am not a psychologist but, based on my experience of being a power user and an early adopter, I conveyed to the audience the need to always remain in power and to understand that a tool is not an end in itself.

I urged the young people in the audience to have long-term, medium-term and short-term plans and, if needed, to use technology, including Artificial Intelligence, to achieve their objectives. In particular, I touched upon the creation of “second brains” which is important for knowledge workers and I also spoke about getting things done using task management and time management tools.

At the end, we had an interesting Q&A session with the audience. I would like to thank the organisers from Middlesex University Mauritius, Emma, the well-being intern who moderated the panel very well as well as my fellow panelists: Alla Kozyreva, Guillaume Thierry, James van der Westhuizen, Jeremy Yan Shi Cheung, Mohamed Es Fih, Sanjana Gobin-Rambhojun and Yann Andrew Seewoochurn.