Health and Wellbeing

On the 16th of March, we started a new series of workshops with students from Mihai Eminescu high school. We are happy to see students from classes: 9B, 10D, 10E, 12D. It looks like we managed to build a connection and we are glad to see students more relaxed with us. This time we chose Health and Wellbeing course. Without a doubt, our health and wellbeing can be compromised by addiction to technology.

Our goal is to make students understand what are the benefits of media. As well, what are the symptoms of media addiction and how they can minimize and control the time spent online. Further, they have to find solutions for themselves to use media smartly. Of course, the use of technology should be beneficial as well.

To achieve our goal we structured our workshop into one Icebreaker and 2 activities based on these topics:

• Types of media addiction
• Symptoms of media addiction

Icebreaker

We do some stretching and energizing exercises with music. Starting with the upper body and ending with the legs. It seems that students enjoyed getting energized with some movement. Indeed, exercising is always a good choice.

Types of media addiction

Lisa, our volunteer, proposes a nice way to make groups. She divides a paper flipchart into 4 columns with 4 types of media: Video Games, Tik Tok, Instagram, TV Shows (YouTube, Netflix). In addition, she asks students to write their names on a post-it and choose one type of media they use the most. Afterward, she explains that they can go in groups based on the chosen type of media. From this point, each group has the task to respond to the following questions:

• What does it allow you to do and why is it fun
• On average how much time do you spend on it
• What are the top 5 benefits of social media to your mental health
• What are the top 5 downsides of social media to your mental health

This activity is a way for students to realize how much time they spend online and how it affects them. It is also an introduction to the following activity about symptoms of media addiction.

Symptoms of media addiction

The following activity is more like a game. Theo, our volunteer, prepares blue cards with written symptoms of media addiction. As well, 4 paper sheets with drawing Venn diagrams in advance on them. In addition, he proposes to play by placing cards on the Venn diagram which has 3 categories:

1. Addiction
2. Passion
3. Both

We were impressed with students’ knowledge, some of the teams correctly classified cards with symptoms.

Based on their sharings and knowledge, our volunteer Doina asks reflective questions to make awareness about using technology to our advantage. In advance, guide them with questions to share insights about how they can minimize their time online or make it more efficient, without avoiding day-to-day responsibilities. We hope that we managed to offer enough food for thought and we made them happier a little bit more.