Join the Conversation: A Panel on Mental Health, Self-Image, and Social Media

As part of the Light of Learning Programme youth administrative co-coordinator Jessica Franey and Marketing Specialist Ryan Grant lead a youth event at the University of Guelph on March 9 th 2025. The event was an opportunity to listen to a youth panel, network, interact and have conversations surrounding the topic of “Managing Mental Health and Self-Image in the Age of Social Media”. The event was held at Peter Clark Hall.

The day began with a lovely introduction to the event by our hosts, an organizational presentation from Centre for Conscious Awareness – Canada directors. We started the panel and breakout sessions with a Bingo contest ice-breaker, so that everyone can get to know each other better.

Tour hosts guided a meaningful discussion regarding the topic. The amazing youth panelists were:

Imani Soje, a recent graduate from Carleton University’s Communication and Media Studies program where she also studied both Arts Management and Business as minors.

Maria Xiropodis, a 3^rd year Child Studies student at University of Guelph who hopes to pursue a career in youth Speech and Language Pathology.

These were the discussion questions used for the panel and discussion breakouts:

1. Can social media help us discover who we are, or does it force us to conform to others’expectations?

2. What role does social media play in shaping the identities of you as young people compared to older generations? How does this influence your sense of self as you navigate the digital world?

3. How does social media contribute to unrealistic beauty standards and how does this affect our internal narratives about what is “normal” for our own appearance?

4. Social media often presents an idealized version of people’s lives, highlighting their best moments, rarely showing their struggles and imperfections. How does this affect our perception of reality, and what impact does it have on our mental health and self-image when we compare our everyday lives to these curated portrayals?

5. What role do social media algorithms play in shaping our emotional state or mental health? Do these algorithms prioritize content that can make us feel good, or do they tend to reinforce negativity?

6. What strategies can we use to detach our self-image from the content we consume? What steps can we take to maintain positive self-esteem?

Charity founder, Srinivas Arka, pre-recorded a video that was played during the event. He answered the following questions:

1. Considering how social media thrives on likes, comments and engagement with others, how does the pursuit of external validation affect our internal sense of self-worth? Can we ever truly be content with ourselves if our value is constantly measured by others’ opinions?

2. Does our constant engagement with social media distract us from seeking deeper, more meaningful connections with ourselves and others? In the quest for likes and follows, are we sacrificing our inner peace and sense of purpose?

Here are a few quotes from Srinivas Arka’s talk:
“If you observe a tree, or birds flying, or the moonlight you will
not be negatively affected or drained, on the contrary you will
become more inspired because we are not synthetic beings.”

“You need to know who you are, what’s unique about your nature? We are all unique beings, in what ways are you unique?”

We had a competitive kahoot! contest with 2 prize winners that tested their knowledge of CCA-Canada, the content of the event and popular culture.

CCA-Canada team gave an Intuitive Meditation demonstration to the youth in attendance.

We had musical performances from the talented Kennedy Shaw Trio, comprised of: Grace Fast on vocals and Lucas Williams and Kennedy Shaw on guitar.

We enjoyed a delicious pizza party and coffee and tea to conclude the event.

A special thank you to the youth support staff that put all their effort and hard work to make the event a success:

Wancong Song
Shane Phyper
Meidi Seeneevassen
Jesus Cuellar
Samrath Singh

Also, thank you to our videographer, Joshua Machute, and photographer, Richard Li, for capturing the event.