It has been a difficult two years dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and the related stresses, but it is becoming clear that the negative impacts from this time have hit young people particularly hard.

A report from The Associated Press, which ran in The Sentinel on Monday, cites a survey that showed stress from the pandemic among the younger generation was much higher than for older people. The survey stated 46% of those between ages 13 and 24 saying it made it harder to pursue their education or career goals.

This age group also reported more difficulties in their relationships with friends compared to older generations.

The pandemic has caused increased stress across all age groups, but younger people were already seeing increased stress and depression well before COVID hit. A 2019 Pew Research study found youth depression rates increased from 8% in 2007 to more than 13% in 2017. The added stress from the pandemic has left us with many young people who are really struggling.

A week ago, the United States surgeon general warned that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects from the pandemic and other stresses in their lives. There was even a report issued detailing this problem.

It’s easy to see how the pandemic contributed to an already existing problem among America’s youth. Increased time online, especially on social media has been one of the causes cited as contributing to this problem.

Social media tends to amplify negative forces that every generation who goes through adolescence experiences – negative body image, struggles to fit in, wanting to be liked. All these things get dialed way up when being liked means literally getting likes and the entire world can comment on how you look in a photo.

With the pandemic, it only accelerated this by removing students from classrooms and sending everything online. It was necessary at the time for public health, but now we’re seeing the ramifications of it among our youth and it deserves serious attention.

We’re fortunate in Mesa County that leadership in District 51, with help from Mesa County Public Health, developed protocols to get students back into school as quickly as possible, while planning for how to slow the spread when outbreaks of COVID-19 occur. Our kids got back in person quicker than many across the country. They got back in the classroom and on the sports fields, which surely helped.

Still this isn’t a problem that does not affect us. There has still been a pandemic, there are still all these issues around growing up online on social media that our kids are dealing with.

We recently elected a new school board and we think this mental health crisis should be something they focus on urgently. There need to be resources for parents and attention paid to the mental health of the students.

Ultimately a technological solution may be needed. If we can have airplane mode on smartphones, why not a school mode or homework mode or family dinner mode? Technology is wonderful, but some limits need to be in place for the mental health of our young people.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board