Online or Offline - Keep it safe and friendly

There are several truths about Europe today that we need to acknowledge:
- The depopulation of the villages: the birth rate in the rural areas has decreased and the migration of the youth from the rural to the urban has increased
- The quality and the coverage of the internet today has increased in Europe (in 2018, in top 10 worldwide countries with the highest internet quality, 6 of them were from Europe)
- the youth are spending much of their free time in front of a web-connected device
Some of these truths have a negative impact, some a positive one, but what we must underline here is that the young population, still living in Europe’s rural areas, are hardly ever meeting up to spend time together. Causes: their number is small, the distance between their homes is larger, the attractiveness of the internet which gives them comfort when it comes to spending their free time. This means that they are spending much more of their free time in their homes, on the internet.
The way the young are communicating and organizing has changed fundamentally. The new generations have adapted their lifestyle to the new technology, where they have also moved their socialization. But social media comes also with risks of which the young need to be informed, they need to know the negative impact and how they can defend themselves and intervene in case they identify or are witnesses to such threats. Among these we can pinpoint addiction, failing to meet the real demands of society, the negative impact of ones’ public image and even depression. These can lead to a decrease of flexibility, of courage and optimism of a young person in regards to integrating himself in the society, a negative impact on personal and professional development and in building ones’ identity.
The Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH) and YHM have undergone a study in the first months of the year 2017, #StatusofMind, which examined the negative and positive effects of social media on the health of the youngsters and have identified 14 wellbeing and health related aspects that were considered significant, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleeping behavior, aggressiveness, empathy, relationships with the outside world and the “FoMo” (Fear of Missing out).
Moreover, what we remark is an increasing number of young people who fall victims of these threats on social media, with effects that have both a psychological, and a physical one, some youngsters choosing to take their own lives or becoming victims of human trafficking. We cannot overlook the fact that among the causes there is the lack of information, the delay of the rural communities to adapt to the new technologies and new threats and, therefore, the lack of involvement from the parents in the “digital life” of their children. It is important to mention here the fact that the young people from the rural areas don’t always know how to spend their free time in a more healthy and productive way, as the life in a village does not offer a vast array of options for entertainment. And when the threats are there, the youth are not informed how to react, where to seek help or how to deal with such a situation.
The aim of this project is, therefore, to increase the level of information among the young people from rural areas in regards to the threats of social media. To reach this goal we have set three clear objectives, to be implemented in the course of 9 months, working with 24 young people from 6 countries:
- to raise awareness among young people of the positive and negative aspects of social networks present on the internet
- to diversify the options these young people have to spend their free time by offering them the tools to find the games and interactive activities that best suits them when it comes to offline interaction
- to raise the level of active involvement and reaction towards the threats from social media.
The methodology that will be used to fulfill these objectives will be through non-formal and informal education: games, round games, workshops, space for active participation, photo/video projections, face-to-face presentations, role playing, networking and not only. The participants, aged 16-23 years old, will be able to identify the elements and make a distinction between personal and virtual identity, between physical life and virtual life. The key values promoted by the project are going to be:
- human rights – focus on the social issues of youth life in the online environment
- the respect for diversity and for a multicultural and mutilingual approach
- the encouragement to express one’s opinion in harmony with the respect for the other’s identity
- the courage and basic instruments needed to take a stand against discrimination and bullying.
We want to decrease the number of young victims of social media from the rural areas, to put our shoulder to the wheel in order to fight cyberbullying, to give them options of how to entertain themselves offline and to develop these young people’s ability to select information and react to dangers and threats. Such a project will have effects also upon the self-esteem and socialization of the young people involved, they will be more confident and more involved in the social life of their community, but they will also improve the relationship with their families and friends, effects which will echo in their community and leave a mark on the people they will come in contact with.