There is a concern that is becoming commonplace. It’s not just the amount of information or the speed at which it circulates. It’s something more subtle and profound: the difficulty of verifying what is said and, with it, the persistent feeling of not knowing what to believe.
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At what point did we stop trusting what we see, what we hear, or even what we think? When did truth stop being a destination and become something that eludes us? And what happens to a person, especially a young person, when they grow up amidst such instability?
A recent study conducted by the 4U alliance, comprising EAFIT, Uninorte, ICESI, and CESA, once again raises a difficult-to-ignore alert in Colombia regarding the mental health of young people. Approximately four out of ten university students exhibit symptoms of anxiety and depression, and one out of eight has attempted suicide. Furthermore, the study shows the relationship between higher levels of depression and time spent on social media.
Beyond the figures, these data speak of young people who feel more vulnerable to others, fearing social cancellation, needing acceptance, and experiencing greater anxiety in the face of uncertainty. They inhabit an exhausting environment where information never rests and where every assertion finds its opposite.
Added to this is another layer of complexity. Networks not only amplify what happens, but also produce a kind of parallel truth. A truth made of versions that circulate without passing through the time of comprehension.
This constant exposure to competing narratives comes at a cost. When everything can be affirmed and questioned at the same time, without the demand for verification, the place from which we understand is also weakened.
Living without a framework from which to make sense of the world is not just a problem of thought, it is also a mental health problem. Because to live, we don’t need absolute certainties, but we do need a horizon from which to think, feel, and decide. A reference that allows us to orient ourselves without getting lost.
And a decisive question arises there. What happens when we lose that point of orientation? When that happens, we don’t just doubt more. We begin to dwell in anxiety. Uncertainty stops being a question and becomes an unceasing alert.
Perhaps that support is nothing other than what allows us to orient ourselves amidst uncertainty. That which makes it possible to distinguish, to relate without destroying, and to inhabit life with some proportion. And if that is so, then we are not so far from an ancient intuition. The one that posits that life is sustained by truth, goodness, and beauty.
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That is why it is worth returning to this classic triad which, far from being abstract, is profoundly practical and which we can invoke in daily life as a way to strengthen what sustains us.
Truth, understood as the disposition to better comprehend and to distinguish amidst the noise.
Goodness, as the way to sustain connection without turning difference into a threat.
And beauty, as the capacity to pause and regain proportion.
These are dimensions that help order what we think and how we live. They do not operate as distant ideals, but as orientations cultivated through concrete practices. Practices that invite pause, reflection, and understanding.
Sustaining an idea. Following an argument. Lingering on a question.
Exercises that bring us closer to truth because they train us in seeking, that dispose us to goodness because they allow us to inhabit other voices, and that open us to beauty because they restore the capacity for wonder.
The mental health crisis I mentioned at the beginning is also a reflection of the environments we have built. We have impoverished conversations, accelerated rhythms, and weakened the way we care for truth, connection, and pause.
To that extent, restoring habitable conditions to life is not just a personal task. It is also a form of responsibility towards those who are trying to find their own way today. And perhaps, in these times, learning to sustain an idea, a conversation, or even a doubt is one of the simplest and most urgent gestures to begin.
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