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Digital Active ,Innovating Activities in Interculturality and Social Youth

2021-1-CZ01-KA152-YOU-0000205352021Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: CZ|HR|RO|TR|IT · Grant: €22,992
Information and communication technologies (ICT)Bridging intercultural, intergenerational and social divideInclusion of marginalised young people

Objectives

With this project we wanted to address the issues of high screen time without developing digital skills, of social media addiction of the young people, of passive spending of the free time. At the same time, we wanted to create a cooperation between active youth organizations in different European countries and together to gather youth and youth workers in order to spend active time together and use technology in a way that it develops their digital skills. We wanted to show to young people that they can do more with their phones and devices than scrolling on social media and at the same time, it can also be a fun and active spending time. With the support of the EU funding, we wanted the young people to spend one week together and use different apps and ed tools to make presentations, to follow a cultural track and discover Prague in a gamified way, to do simple research and collaborate online. We also encouraged the young people to share some traditional activities (games, dance and music) from their own culture during the outdoor activities. Before writing the project we researched about Z Generation, who are also called “digital natives” because they are growing up in online media environments. According to the “Digital in 2020 Report”(WeAreSocial), an overview of Europe in digital statistics are as followings; the population is 849.5 million, mobile phone connections are 1.09 billion, internet users are 711.3 million, active social media users are 470.5 million. Besides, %78 of the youth population in Europe are active social media users. We have noticed that young people use social media to communicate even when they are sitting in the same room. Even though social media and digital tools offer new portals for entertainment, communication, education, and social interaction, unlimited engagement with digital media has also caused serious issues. In this sense, it can be considered that people, especially youngsters are living more in a virtual life more than a real one. That is why there has been an exponential increase of research which is conducted on excessive use of social media and its addiction. According to the results, excessive use of social media causes depression, social anxiety, less life satisfaction, low academic performance, mental-physical problems, addiction, and cyberbullying. Using social media excessively doesn’t contribute/improve users’ digital competencies/ personal progress and does not benefit them for using their time productively. Because it isn't necessary to have digital competencies to use social media and scroll down the screen. The research and our own observation of youth problems have motivated us to write and implement this project. All of these do not mean that there are no benefits of social media, but young people should also use other ed tools for their personal development. A large study which was conducted with more than 89,000 individuals in 31 countries has found that some 6% of people on the planet suffer from Internet addiction. It seems that is a global problem when examining the research on social media. Precisely at this point, the target group of this project is the youth population who don't have awareness of the disadvantages and nature of social media which are not entirely suitable for them. We defined objectives keeping in mind SMART criteria: create awareness about excessive and misuse of social media; improve digital competencies explore alternative ways of spending time instead of social media encourage collaboration through ICT create awareness of cyberbullying emphasize equity/inclusion promote creatively use of ICT improve effective usage and management of their time on the net involve disadvantaged groups and provide opportunities for them improve communication/language skills, personal development, social harmony, innovation, creativity provide opportunities about intercultural understanding/European citizenship Being aware of disadvantages of social media usage and having digital competences are directly proportional and both make people more successful in life. It is obvious that ICT is an irreplaceable part of the 21st century and future, it is also important to use it in the right way to build healthy relationships. Our project is directly linked with priorities and objectives determined in the Erasmus+ Programme related to development of key competencies and intercultural dialogue. We are addressing the following issues and needs through this project: negative effects of social media improving digital skills, using time effectively with alternative ways of developing communication/language skills, personal development and also including disadvantaged individuals.

Project partners (5)