An app for your mental health? ‘I’m not a Tamagotchi’

A well-being app: a brilliant idea or a waste of money? That’s what EM’s question was last week. Students appreciate the focus on mental health, but not everyone is convinced of the app’s usefulness.

The question arose following the launch of ROOM, the mental health app developed by Erasmus University. Initial results show that users of the app experience less stress and manage their emotions better after just three weeks, according to implementation manager Mayra Kapteijn.

More than half of the voters on Instagram don’t use an app for their mental health. This 58 percent isn’t interested. The reasons vary, but the majority want less screen time. Nearly twenty percent selected the option: “I’m not a Tamagotchi.”

Before using the app, you first have to log in with your EUR account. 44 percent have no issue with this, and 6 percent believe it will help them receive better support. In the case of serious issues, the app will refer users for a personal consultation.

Most people agree that the university has a duty of care. However, some find the cost of the app, over a million euros, to be too high: “I hope it succeeds, it was expensive enough. At a time when a billion euros in cuts need to be made to higher education, this is one of a thousand projects I’d scrap”, commented ‘a former member of the University Council who voted against the app’. This vote happened in 2021. Back then, the council felt the app was too expensive and disagreed with using education funds for it. The app was eventually developed using a different budget.