THE SOCIAL NETWORKS SHOULD BE UNDER OUR CONTROL:
How many hours do you spend at your phone daily? Probably more than you think. Nowadays, everyone, but especially younger generations, are hyperconnected with social media, not knowing how to live without their phone. But, at the same time, it’s the risk that are involved with using them are unknown like mental
health issues or lack of privacy. With this project, we raised awareness about all these risks. We saw the youth the reality of how social media works and real-life cases of how it has influenced mayor topics like the presidential elections of a country.
We intend to develop their critical sense to make them no longer passive but active-users, who will demand social networks where the user is no longer the product.
The main objectives of the project were:
- show young people the consequences of using social networks in a fun and interactive way.
- increase acceptance of other cultures and appreciation of diversity in Europe.
- help young people to use social networks in a healthy and useful way.
- raise awareness about the effect of social networks on society.
- raise awareness about the effects on people’s mental health that social networks can produce.
42 young people from Spain, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Poland and Austria participated in this project. It was held in Miranda de Ebro (Spain) from August 8 to 15, 2022.
OUR JOURNAL:
DAY 1: Getting to know each others
We carried out the first activity of the project after the opening. This activity is called «super 30», in which we had to complete a poster of 30 tasks together. This activity was aimed at getting to know others better and doing work team. The second activity of the day is called «rules, fears and expecation», which consisted of two phases: in the first phase we compiled a set of rules together but in a very fun and non-formal way, while the second phase consisted in writing about post it in different colors our expectations and fears, but anonymously. It was a way to not feel judged on their fears and to understand the point of view of all the participants. After lunch we took part in a game called «Minefield», which consisted of guessing a sequence and being able to complete it through a line of people, it was a fun opportunity to get to know each other!
The last activity of the first day was an activity called «YouthPass» when we had to do exercises to check on our key competences. There are 8 of them such as personal&social, multilingual, citizenship, entrepreneurship, cultural awareness, digital, literacy and mathematical one. We had a chance to exchange our perspectives, opinions and ideas, and also get to know other countries and cultures better.
DAY 2: being the social media
The first activity ot the day was called «Red Carpet». Each group had the task to play the role of one of 7 social media platforms and to dress themselves accordingly. We learned new facts about the different social media platforms and realized which interests the different platforms have in mind and what they do to achieve that.
After that we had an activity called «social identity» where we tried to find as much information as we can about a person based only on their name, surname and later also their social media nicknames. That gave us a fresh point of view about our social media profiles and what information we show to other people based on our social media profiles.
The last activity was debate based on the documentary «social dilemma» in which we had the opportunity to listen to other people’s points of view based on the situation in their country and their general mindset. Everyone was involved in the discussion beacuse we could choose from a scale between totally agree and totally disagree by positioning and in that way express our opininon which we had the chance to explain and discuss later.
DAY 3: getting to know miranda and the good use of social networks
This morning we have visited the city of Miranda de Ebro. At the C.I.M.A center we have learned about the history of Miranda and the Castle and we have carried out a brief «team building» activity with views of the city.
In our free time we have had the opportunity to walk and talk with the locals, which has helped us understand Spanish culture a little more.
In the afternoon we discovered some studies on social psychology that helped us understand why our brains can become addicted to networks and why sometimes we don’t use them as we should.
In the last workshop we developed the «10 tips for the good use of social networks»
In the evening, the Greek and Austrian teams presented their countries: we tasted their food and drinks, we got to know their music and their dances, and we held quizzes on curiosities about them.
DAY 4: Solving Social Media Problems
OUR PARTICIPANTS' EXPERIECE:
The Meet the Legends Youth Exchange was co-funded by the European Commission within the Erasmus+ framework and implemented by the Croatian association Ocean Znanja