In English

“Moustafa, you need a break now. In order to be able to focus, I suggest going for a short walk or a five-minute meditation” says an artificial intelligence (AI) agent to me after continuous work that lasted for a couple of hours. Sounds like science fiction, does it not? Well, it is not! This is actually one of the recent applications of AI in well-being that is achieved by using different wearable sensors and Machine Learning (ML) models that learn from these sensors’ readings. AI and Data Science applications nowadays can guide students and employees to take a rest or relieve stress even when they do not feel they need it depending on their brain activity.

Are you a Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger user? Were you affected by the 6 hours when all these apps were down? Have you ever thought about how social media can control our lives subconsciously? Being a student nowadays, you are almost always part of the Internet world. Most of the time you are connected to at least one online application whether you are attending lectures in Microsoft Teams, submitting homework using Google Docs, listening to music via Spotify, watching series via Netflix on your laptop, or scrolling through Facebook or Instagram feed.

In fact, and according to a Pew Research Center study, around 30% of experts voted that the always-connected life will be harmful to teens and families through the next decade. Meanwhile, 47% of the experts disagreed. They believe that this would serve the people’s well-being and a small percentage of experts believe that there would not be a noticeable difference. According to the same research, experts have concerns regarding the challenges the digital world and technology would result into such as the lack of analytical skills, losing the ability to focus for a relatively long time, and lack of general creativity towards generating solutions given that people will be always influenced by what they see and interact with in addition to the increase in stress, anxiety, and depression.

The more technology evolves the more hopes and fear arise. How we use technology controls the direction! According to the Global happiness and well-being policy report published in 2019 by the Global Happiness Council, well-being has a clear correlation with the employees’ productivity and retention and as a result the whole working environment. With the help of technology, most of the companies and educational institutions were able to transform into remote work overnight. As much as that was beneficial on many different levels, it also helped in vanishing the line between the work and life balance. According to CNET news, and as of May 2021, there was a 2000% increase in weekend Zoom meetings and a 700% increase in weekday evenings’ meetings on the platform since February 2021. In addition, huge spikes in email usage between midnight and 3 AM were reported by the privacy app maker, SurfShark.

Other concerns were also regarding the direction the big tech giants are adopting based on scientific experiments on bodies which makes the customers stick to these products subconsciously such as video games for teenagers. Other studies conducted by the UCLA brain mapping center, stated that certain brain regions of teenagers are highly triggered by the likes they receive on social media which is one of the most important reasons for social media addiction.

Technology can also have a positive impact on well-being in different areas and domains. In healthcare, for instance, wearable sensor devices and fitness trackers can help and save many patients by helping healthcare professionals monitor their patients on a daily basis preventing health problems way before they occur due to the different sensor readings and metrics.

In education, Natural Language Processing (NLP), which is one of the biggest areas under the umbrella of AI, can be used to customize classes to students based on their understanding levels and progress. The ridiculous routine of administrative matters can be solved and tackled using AI which can result in freeing more time for teachers and professors to interact with students directly.

In the job search journey, which has become an essential part of everyone’s life nowadays, technology and AI-based tools made great progress in matchmaking talents with the right opportunities for them. Recent studies proved that well-being and job security have a clear positive correlation.

Being an AI student and working as a data scientist, I can say confidently that there are a tremendous number of applications of AI and data science that can revolutionize the well-being world but it is all about who will have the right to use these applications, how they will use them and for what purposes. Having access to this amount of data and powerful applications can be tricky and lead to disasters in the wrong hands. On the other hand, maximizing the benefits of the digital world without being controlled by it will be one of the most important challenges that we need to accept, understand and work on a concrete solution for.•

“Technology itself is not going to do anything if we are not empathetic. First, we need to understand the needs we are trying to address. And then technology can be in service of those needs.” —Juliana Nunes, global head of HR, Enterprise Technology, Johnson & Johnson

Not a Cause but a Consequence

We just passed the World Mental Health Day which was on October 10th. As much as the media and the public health authorities are claiming the significance of recognising, and treating, instead of stigmatizing mental health now, this international day has existed only for 29 years, since 1992. On one hand this shows a sign of progress in awareness building on one major human suffering. On the other hand, we might want to ask, why are there so many more people suffering from mental disorders toward the end of the 20th century until now, than any other period in history.

Today, around one-fifth of the world’s population suffer from mental health issues and subsequent side effects of depression, anxiety, self-harm and even suicide. If we think about the number carefully, it is shocking how many of us are suffering and it is a taken reality. One of my friends said mental illness is a “friend” of modern life, she has learned to live with it.

Mental health is also institutionalized in the global public health authority: World Health Organisation puts it “at the center of global health and development priorities1”. Despite the still existing social stigma around mental health patients, it is rather well established, at least in the West, that it requires public health policy and increased fundings to treat the patients, and that a mental health induced issue is like any other disease that could be overcome through psychiatric and medical interventions.

When our experiences of depression, anxiety and sadness have become such a common phenomenon that States have to intervene so actively so that each individual patient could become “normal’’ again, we might want to ask, why is it that one fifth of us are mentally ill today? Is it sufficient and fair to fundamentally reduce our suffering from mental illness by having more medical treatment and social awareness? In other words, is mental health by and large a biological, interpersonal illness that comes from within ourselves; or does it have other causes?

Research investigating the socio-economic and political causes of pervasive mental health illness, directs systematic causes to capitalism, and more precisely neoliberal capitalism in recent decades. Alluding to neoliberal capitalism is pointing towards the most basic economic structure, social relations, and political institutions that are working around us and shaping us, ideologically, physically, and socially.

How does neoliberal capitalism relate to mental health?

Karl Marx has analyzed capitalism to determine that most of the people who do not possess means of subsistence such land or natural resources for survival, have to sell their labour to make a living. This is wage labour, and wage labour contributes to the exploitation of workers because workers are paid less than the actual value they create. The value created and not paid to the working people is the surplus value. The reality of our economic life is that most of us are set out to acquire skills and sell our labour in order to earn a basic living.

And we are all individuals competing with one an other for the ticket to a good life.

The labour market today has become more and more precarious, competitive, and demanding for most industries. In developed, post-industrial countries like Finland, the highest paying work is based on creativity, knowledge and technology or managerial skills, but they have a finite amount of positions and require specific training. Other kinds of skill-based work in service, agricultural, industrial, and health sectors increasingly attract foreign workers, instead of Finnish workers, because business owners could pay lower wages. This leads to the paradoxical situation where Finland has an unemployment gap, while at the same time many companies cannot find enough workers.

Among the postindustrial, knowledge and managerial workers, the global trends are increasing productivity and performance imperatives from the employers. Workers suffer from mental health and even health illness because of the overwhelming amount of work and stress they face.

When people cannot even find work suited to their skills and ambitions, therefore facing tremendous economic and social pressure, they grow an enormous amount of anxiety and fear for the uncertain life. Adding to poverty, mental disorder is almost inevitable.

Here in Finland, you may argue it is not true that people are born and educated to work, because there is social welfare that aims to preserve citizens’ wellbeing. In my opinion, this claim is accurate to some extent only. That is because Finland, among other Nordic countries, have been slowly but steadily taking on neoliberal economic and social policies.

Neoliberal policies characterise the elimination of barriers for capital flow and the creation of market friendly environments. Commodification of previously non-market services or human activities is a result of neolibeal policies: such as commodification of health care, education, housing in many countries, and significant commodification of people. When a person is commodified, a person is a commodity to be sold with a price, the price being what he or she is dependent on surviving and reproducing their labour.

For many educational systems, the highest aim lies in preparing students to meet labour demands and promoting employability. We can see this also through global and national educational agendas, which emphasize on graduates’ work prospects and their potential to contribute to innovation and growth in the economy. The process of education becomes similar to producing st dents as market useful commodities. Today’s society is also a world of work. If a person doesn’t have a job, they have no status in the society.

We can see that universities in Finland, like many other places, in the past decade are adopting measurements to encourage students to graduate with no delay and start to evaluate employability of the graduates through systematic tracking. As students, we are all on alert with maximizing our study experiences and finding work after graduation.

The status of the labour market transfers stress and pressure to students when they look ahead towards the future. More significantly it is the university that reproduces the market mechanism and makes the education process mostly catering to market needs, rather than human, intellectual, and health needs.

From my own experience and that of my peers, many students today suffer from depression and anxiety because we face too much academic, economic, and social stress; we feel confined within the given education practice; we experience interpersonal or intellectual challenges but do not get the needed support. Overall it is because other factors contributing to well-being such as intellectual freedom, personalised learning pace, human connections, space to explore life, are all subordinated under economic productivity. When it comes to students, their economic productivity refers to employability, potential for surplus value, and ability to pay taxes.

Studying and working are fundamental human activities when a person learns, interacts and produces in the natural and social environment, to materialize their thoughts and feelings in the world. Working becomes problematic when it becomes exploited labour. And it is the case for most people who work today.

Students as future workers are shaped under a system that wants to exploit their talents and productive work, otherwise the system would threaten to strip away the basic human needs. There is no human freedom. Thus, alienation and mental illness take hold of us as a means to protest against reality. That is to say, suffering from mental health issues is not simply or only because we have had trauma before, we have bad habits, we have weak spirits, or that we have problems. We also need to see the larger system that determines our livelihood and what we are forced to become. •

Peppi aukeaa 22. marraskuuta

Löydät opinnot, suoritukset, opetukseen ilmoittautumiset, HOPSit, todistukset ja palautteet nyt yhdestä paikasta.

Peppi opens 22 November

You will find studies, study attainments, course enrolment, personal study plan, certificates and feedback now in one place.

Tulevaisuuden ei tarvitse olla selvä vielä yliopistossakaan

Automaatioinsinöörinä työskentelevä Maija Inkerö kirjoittaa joka vuosi marraskuussa vähintään 50 000 sanaa fiktiota ja haaveilee pelialasta. Oma ala löytyi sattumien kautta.

Ohjelmoinnin alkeiskurssilla Maija Inkerö totesi, että tämä ei ainakaan kiinnosta. Opetus tuntui puisevalta, eikä tietokoneella kirjoitetulla koodilla tehnyt oikeastaan mitään. Kun Inkerö aloitti opinnot Oulun yliopiston konetekniikan ohjelmassa, hän oli suuntautunut autotekniikkaan. Autot olivat kiinnostaneet nuoresta lähtien, samoin matematiikka. Inkerö menestyi lukiossa luonnontieteellisissä aineissa, ja pitkästä matematiikasta tuli ylioppilaskirjoituksissa L. Autotekniikka alkoi kuitenkin tökkiä. Jo silloin oli nähtävissä, että hybridit ja sähköautot yleistyvät, mutta luennoilla puhuttiin edelleen polttomoottoritekniikasta. “En halunnut tutkintoa, joka vanhentuisi viidessätoista vuodessa.” Inkerö vaihtoi mekatroniikkaan ja valmistui konetekniikan diplomi-insinööriksi vuonna 2018. Siitä ensimmäisestä ohjelmointikurssista hän ei päässyt läpi, mutta nyt hän on töissä teollisuuskoodarina. Virallinen titteli on Automation Engineer. “Ensimmäinen työpaikkani valmistumisen jälkeen oli software developer eli softakehittäjä. Siellä tutustuin PLC-ohjelmointiin, joka yhtäkkiä alkoikin kiinnostaa. Huomasin, että voin saada koodia kirjoittamalla asiat konkreettisesti liikkumaan.” Inkerö toivoo, että voisi kertoa nykyisillekin opiskelijoille, ettei kaiken välttämättä tarvitse olla selvää jo lukiossa. Eikä vielä yliopistossakaan. Tällä hetkellä Inkerö haaveilee pelialasta. Siinä yhdistyvät ohjelmointi sekä Inkerön harrastukset, eli fiktion kirjoittaminen ja kuvataide. Rovaniemellä kasvanut Inkerö tiesi jo lukiossa, ettei halunnut muuttaa Oulua etelämmäs, joten opiskelupaikan valinta oli helppoa. Hän ei hakenutkaan muualle kuin Ouluun. Nykyisen työn puolesta täytyy usein käydä Etelä-Suomessa. Inkerö nauttii ajomatkoista, mutta Helsingistä hän haluaa yleensä saman tien pois. “Mielestäni etelässä on liikaa ihmisiä, liikaa kaistoja ja muutenkin liikaa kaikkea. Minun mielenmaisemani sopii pohjoiseen.” Pohjoisessa ajamisesta pitää myös Allu, päähenkilö Inkerön Kohta palaa maa -nimisessä tarinassa. Siihen yhtäläisyydet loppuvatkin: Allu on impulsiivinen ja ongelmainen pikkurikollinen, joka ajautuu jatkuvasti konflikteihin. Inkerö kutsuu tarinaansa antidekkariksi.

Kirjoitusharrastus alkoi jo lukiossa. Sitten löytyi oma kirjoittajayhteisö, jossa Inkerö on ollut mukana jo kymmenen vuotta. Inkerö on nanottaja, eli hän osallistuu National Novel Writing Monthiin, NaNoWriMoon. Sen ideana on kirjoittaa marraskuun aikana 50 000 sanan romaani. Haaste on maailmanlaajuinen, mutta Suomessa toimii oma aktiivinen alueosasto. Kirjoittajat järjestävät livetapaamisia, käyvät sanasotia ja keskustelevat projekteistaan NaNoWriMon virallisten sivujen foorumilla sekä Discordissa. Oulussakin on ollut aktiivinen paikallisyhteisö, jossa Inkerö on toiminut tapaamisvastaavana. Hän toivoo yhteisön elpyvän, kunhan koronasta selvitään. Haastetta hän ei ole hävinnyt vielä kertaakaan. Tänä vuonna hän aikoo kirjoittaa 90-luvun alun laman aikana valmistuvista kaveruksista, joista toinen kärsii masennuksesta ja toinen on maaninen keksijähahmo. “Hän saa kaikenlaisia ideoita. joita ryhtyy toteuttamaan, ja vielä onnistuukin siinä. Tämän tarinan aikana hän rakentaa kuvaputkitelevisiosta aikakoneen, matkustaa vuoteen 1968 ja kaappaa presidentti Kekkosen Linnan juhlista kesken letkajenkan.” Hullutteleva tyyli sopii kirjoitushaasteen henkeen. Tarinankerronta on vahvuus myös pelialalla. Inkerö on tähän mennessä tehnyt grafiikoita pienille peliprojekteille, ja parhaillaan hän kehittää omaa peliä. “Vuoden alussa osallistuin haasteeseen, jossa piirretään pupuja. Siitä alkoi vähitellen kehittyä lastenpeli, jossa on aikuisillekin samaistuttavia teemoja. Esimerkiksi päähenkilö Hjalmarilla on selkeästi burnout, mutta sitä ei sanota ääneen. Ohjelmoin työssäkin, ja huomasin, että minähän voin tehdä todella siistejä juttuja.” Inkerö on hakenut Xamkiin peliohjelmoinnin linjalle. Mutta ei haittaa, vaikka peliala jäisi kakkosammatiksi. “Se on sellainen tuuriala.” Inkerö toivoo, että IT-kuplasta olisi otettu oppia myös voimakkaasti kasvavalla pelialalla. Kasvu jakautuu toistaiseksi epätasaisesti: jotkut rikastuvat, ja pelin menestys voi riippua monista ulkoisista tekijöistä. Peliala on myös edelleen miesvaltainen ala, ja konetekniikka varsinkin. Inkerö ei ole kokenut vakavaa syrjintää sukupuolensa takia, mutta ronskia huumoria joutuu joskus sietämään. Ironista kyllä, häneltä on toivottu työhaastattelussa naisellista näkemystä, herkkyyttä ja empatiaa. “Se tuli täysin puskista. Minulla on kovaa osaamista konealalta, mutta en tuo mitään naisellista näkemystä mukanani, enkä ole kyllä empaattinen tai herkkäkään. Luulen, että se oli kiusallinen tilanne kaikille haastattelussa mukana olleille.” •

MAIJA INKERÖ » 30-vuotias » Asuu Oulussa miehensä ja Ruka-koiran kanssa » Valmistui Oulun yliopistosta konetekniikan diplomi-insinööriksi vuonna 2018 » Automaatioinsinööri oululaisyritys Conseptaksella » Oulun tapaamisvastaava NaNoWriMo-kirjoittajayhteisössä. Osallistuu joka vuosi sekä varsinaiseen haasteeseen että vapaamuotoisiin kirjoituskuukausiin eli campeihin » Tehnyt grafiikkaa pienille peliprojekteille ja kehittää nyt omaa pupupeliä » Vapaa-ajalla harrastaa taidetta, neulomista, orkideoja ja akvaarioita.