According to the California Healthy Kids Survey conducted in the 2021-22 school year, only 26% of high school students believe that there is a purpose to their lives.
High school students’ sense of purpose and engagement is declining due to a combination of academic pressure, social media habits and traditional teaching methods. As a result, students feel more bored, unfulfilled and less motivated both in and out of the classroom.
Academic pressures can have a huge impact on students’ sense of fulfillment. Heather Chamberlain, a psychologist serving adolescents and families around Marin County, said, “It almost feels like if you don’t perform well in preschool, then you’re never going to get into a good college, which sounds ridiculous, but I think this pressure is definitely felt.”
However, not all students’ level of fulfillment is simply affected by academic pressures. Spencer DeWoody, Redwood’s wellness coordinator, said that students who don’t spend the majority of their time on academics will be less affected by academic pressure, versus students who are extremely devoted to their academics.“Oftentimes the students who feel less purposeful in their lives are the ones who are more academically oriented,” said DeWoody.
“I think if you tie all your self-worth to academics and what grade or what outcome you get, you’ll have less life fulfillment than someone that has values that are self-motivating,” DeWoody said.
“A sense of purpose does not always need to be defined by academic achievements or academics in general,” Chamberlain said. “Sense of purpose could be being a good person, being inclusive in your community.”
Additionally, when taking into account the habits social media is creating, Chamberlain said that society has an attention economy. This means that certain apps try to keep attention spans shorter by quickly scrolling through topics.
“We’ve gotten really used to things being in very small segments, and I think that trains our brain to be like, ‘oh, if it’s not in a small segment, it’s going to be more boring’,” Chamberlain said.
The attention economy wires our brains to be in constant need of entertainment.
“Constantly wanting to be engaged is not necessarily great either,” Chamberlain said. “I think you have to kind of have that balance where you can push through and be bored.”
DeWoody also said that many times, phones can provide students with the dopamine hits they are constantly searching for that they might not be getting from inside the classroom.
“When we’re letting down or we don’t have something that’s immediately giving us a dopamine hit, it feels almost like a withdrawal,” DeWoody said.
According to a study done by YaleNews in 2020, feelings of drowsiness and low energy are often mistaken for boredom. Such feelings can create a drought for students’ academic motivation.
Another study from the 2021-2022 California Healthy Kids Survey revealed that 54% of students think that school is really boring, emphasizing a significant level of disengagement that can negatively affect learning and motivation. This is causing students to feel emptier than ever, stripping the sense of purpose from them.
Although there is not one clear solution or answer, Chamberlain said a student’s sense of fulfillment can positively impact their motivation and wellbeing.
“I think having a sense of purpose is a meaning, like, why am I pushing through this? Why am I doing this difficult thing?” Chamberlain said.
