June 6, 2026
According to CAMH, almost every third person in Ontario reports fair or poor mental health and almost every fifth person reports frequent mental distress. While COVID is often mentioned as the cause for these high numbers, even 3 years after the pandemic, mental health issues are still increasing.
On June 6th we had the first Agora focusing on one specific theme. We wanted to address the ongoing mental health crisis and develop solutions that we can propose to our local members of parliament - to actually make an impact.
One half of us discussed personal factors, the other focused on structural and philosophical reasons for the ongoing crisis. It was a personal and meaningful event overall. We identified a causal chain that may be a large contributor to the crisis:
Rapid Technological Progress → Short-term Orientation and Lack of Discipline → Mental Health Issues
Rapid Technological Progress
Our accelerated technological progress comes with lots of opportunities but also risks. AI, for example, helps us move forward in medicine and engineering, but also keeps us hooked to our screens and entices us to be lazy in our thinking and creativity. Social media has given us a chance to better connect with the world, but many of us use it to boost our ego or to doomscroll and supply our brain with cheap dopamine.
Ideas/solutions:
- •Lawmakers and governments advocating for caution and implementing limits and regulations for technology usage → see the example of Australia banning social media for people under the age of 16
- •Requiring users to connect their IDs to their online profiles would make them act more responsibly as both consumers and creators
- •Giving users control over the algorithm and what content they want to see
Short-term Orientation and Lack of Discipline
Through these developments, our brains seem to become almost obedient to technology and the short-term dopamine circuits that come with it. We have a harder and harder time committing to long-term plans, friendships and social duties. With that, we also diminish our discipline which is required to maintain a healthy mind and body.
Ideas/solutions:
- •Start a challenging hobby, perhaps a team sport or similar so that you commit and are accountable for a longer-term activity
- •Introduce courses in education that teach people long-term thinking and goal setting
- •Advocate for discipline through methods like meditation, sports and similar programs
Mental Health Issues
As discussed before, mental health issues are caused by a variety of biological, personal, social, technological, structural, spiritual and philosophical reasons. When looking at technology, short-term orientation and lack of discipline in particular, we can see how they connect to issues such as anxiety and depression. All of these factors, for example, lead to less reliable relationships, social cohesion and a fragmented attention that so many of us experience.
Ideas/solutions:
- •Government funded therapy to help equip us with the tools to improve our mental health
- •Standards for companies related to mental health days, sick leave and similar issues
- •Companies should track and be more accountable for their employees' stress levels, burnout etc. Dialogue is a Montreal-based company working on exactly this issue now.
Beyond these ideas and solutions we also believe that we as people should reestablish what really matters to us. Social media and tech companies may tell us that social status, short-term gratification and convenience is what life is all about - but is that really true for all of us? How about true connection, presence, love, self-improvement, mastery and similar virtues? We are convinced that a national (or at least local) poll would help show the people in charge and us as consumers what we really care about.
More of these issues and ideas will be worked on in our next event on June 27th - the second edition of The Modern Agora addressing the mental health crisis.
Hoping to see you there!