03 August 2021
It is known that expectations to perform well at school cause stress amongst young students in Singapore.
Recently, students also told Education Minister Chan Chun Sing at a dialogue on Friday (July 30) night that other sources of stress include the social anxiety of missing out on the experiences of others. They said that scrolling through social media often breeds the fear of missing out, otherwise known as Fomo.
Acknowledging that social media adds a new layer of stress, Mr Chan said: “I think learning how to cope with this is also very important because, otherwise, you would be beholden to the entire social media feed and your whole psychology will be driven by this, and that’s unhealthy.”
The stress arising from parental expectations of academic achievement has come under scrutiny in the past, most recently in the last two weeks, and many parents, including Mr Chan, have reflected on how success is defined. Students said pressure also comes from within in the quest for excellence.