| Thanks to everyone who took part in Men's Health Week 2023. Hope you had a screen break and a chance to try the CAN DO challenge. All the information, links and materials for the week will remain available for now so you can use them at anytime. |
Men's Health Week 2023
The iPhone was born in 2007. Those born in the same year will turn 16 this year. They've grown up with a high-performance computer in their pocket. What are the implications for men's health?
That's the question we're looking at for this year's Men's Health Week. Clearly there are some health benefits to being able to access health information or deliver and receive health services online but what are the downsides? Read on for full details including on our new resources on internet-fulled addictions.
Dopamine-delivery device
Dopamine is one of the key chemical messenger in your brain. It creates feelings of pleasure and reward and plays a role in concentration, memory and what we find interesting. In short, dopamine makes us feel good and we like a hit of it from time to time.
The iphone is a dopamine-delivery device that is always to hand. Every single app you use on it knows this full well and is designed to keep you using it. The potential for addiction is obvious. Even an 'addiction' to a pretty benign app is going to cost us time and the attention we could have devoted to more meaningful things. But what about when it starts costing money, relationships, work… ?
We're interested in hearing what you think and what you'd like to see. Let us know by signing up for Men's Health Week 2023.
Our message to men
- If you think you're spending too much time on your tech (and even if you don't), take a screen break and try the CAN DO challenge instead. The free CAN DO Manual can help.
- Use our social media shares and posters MHW 2023: men's health and the internet - take a screen break and also social media shares and posters for the CAN DO challenge
- The CAN DO challenge alone will benefit your mental wellbeing but if you want to give your mind a fuller MOT, get our Man MOT For The Mind manual.
- There's evidence that some addictions which particularly affect men have been made worse by 24/7 internet and smartphones. If you're concerned about your gambling or porn-use, check out our new manuals Wanna Bet: gambling and men's health and Porn Free: pornography and men's health.
Our message to partners
- Get a discussion going in your workplace or organisation on the impacts of the smartphone and the internet on health. Perhaps use our new Toolbox Talk.
- Use our social media shares and posters MHW men's health and the internet - take a screen break and also social media shares and posters for the CAN DO challenge
- Ensure workplace colleagues have a copy of our free SWAP: the stress at work action plan
- If you want to take it further, get our Man MOT For The Mind manual, the manual which the SWAP supports
- Consider copies of our other manuals looking at key mental health challenges:
Two events to catch up on if you missed them…
- Men and online harms - the Forum's webinar with Dr Marcus Maloney from Coventry University. Marcus led a discussion on 'Boys, men, and ‘toxic’ communities': Tuesday 13th June @ 2pm on Zoom. (The full Coventry University report of which Marcus's work forms a part is here: Post-digital Intimacies for Online Safety.) Jim Pollard from the Forum interviewed Marcus and introduced Men's Health Week. Watch this event here.
- Dr Hilary Jones - the Forum's website editor Jim Pollard interviewed the GP and TV doc in the Royal Voluntary Service's Virtual Village Hall: Thursday 15th June @ 11am on Zoom. You can watch that event on our Facebook page.