The Reason Why College Students Feel Greater Anxiety

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 The Reason Why College Students Feel Greater Anxiety

As modern society is called the "era of anxiety," none of all people living in this era live without feeling "anxiety." 

Amid this pain of psychological anxiety, unfortunately, many people choose to commit suicide, and Korea is also a country with great anxiety that ranks first in the world's suicide rate. In particular, the anxiety level of college students in Korea is statistically close to 41%. College students' anxiety is becoming a social problem, as the suicide rate of young people in Korea ranks first among OECD countries.

 There are many superficial reasons for feeling anxious, such as the social reality of not getting a job even if they accumulate various specifications and apply hundreds of times. However, more fundamentally, there are three main causes of high anxiety experienced by college students in this society.

The most important reason is anxiety due to a lack of an understanding of oneself, internal solidity, and cohesion. 

College students have likely spent more time on only one goal of the "college entrance exam" by experiencing many restrictions in institutional education, suppressing and restraining themselves, rather than sharing their independent lives so far. Also, there would not have been many opportunities to think deeply about who they are and to explore their ego. 

Therefore, they are more likely to unconsciously accept and follow what the world asks for than they want. Thus, due to the lack of understanding, awareness, and experience of "I" and "the world," identity is still confused, and anxiety about their existence inevitably exists. 

In addition, since concern about their identity is bound to be the root of all psychological anxiety, this can be the most important factor of stress.

The second main reason is anxiety due to social status in the era of meritocracy. The age of meritocracy underestimates our existence if our qualities cannot be presented as socially recognized signs. As in the status of "students," college students have the potential to learn and grow rather than still achieving accomplishments. 

However, our self-image is often determined by how others view us. Therefore, in the absence of social status to be recognized yet, college students inevitably judge their value or importance low with the eyes of the world. 

In harsh reality, college students feel considerable anxiety as they are deprived of the emotional foundation for inner peace and concerns that the state of absence of status may continue.

The third reason is the anxiety that arises when college students who consider them equal show better performance than themselves. 

College students live hard daily with their peers to advance in uncertain situations such as study, career, and employment. 

However, when they see their similar friends get ahead of them quickly, they become impatient. In a way, being at an appropriate level is never determined independently, so college students feel a relative sense of deprivation by comparing the conditions of those who consider them the same as their own. In addition, as the old saying goes, "If my cousin buys land, my stomach hurts," the achievement of people in a similar position to themselves evokes negative feelings of jealousy and envy, and these feelings consequently accompany anxiety.

 In other words, when people who consider themselves equal to themselves show better performance than themselves, they have idolization and idealization of other appearances rather than the present appearance. 

In the end, the feeling arising from the comparative consciousness of the self and the reference group becomes the source of anxiety.

In conclusion, a vast number of psychological and situational factors are intertwined, affecting the anxiety of college students. However, it is necessary to look into more fundamental causes than external causes. 

Without psychological toughness, no matter how much knowledge they acquire, build a variety of specifications, and succeed in getting a job they want, they will continue to experience empty psychological anxiety.

 Therefore, it can be said that the fundamental cause of anxiety in college students eventually begins with psychological problems. And if they don't take care of this psychological and mental health, many actions to relieve stress will be like pouring water into a bottomless pit. 

It should be noted that various personal and social contextual experiences, such as awareness and understanding of the self, growth in the social trend of the era of meritocracy, and inferiority experiences suffered in the community to which they belong, are the most critical and key factors for college students' anxiety. 

After that, the best way would be to actively look into this and convert the complicated feelings of stress into the source of vitality and energy of life and live an extraordinary life today.