Through this project, we aimed to encourage a more conscious and balanced relationship with digital tools. Our goal was to understand how to integrate them beneficially into our daily lives, to identify the moments when they truly foster connection, learning, and creativity, while promoting practices that respect both our personal well-being and the environment. This reflection process helped raise awareness among young people and professionals about more mindful digital habits, highlighting often-overlooked impacts such as stress, isolation, digital fatigue, as well as pollution caused by massive data storage, server energy consumption, and the extraction of rare materials needed to produce electronic devices. Through training sessions, participatory workshops, and presentations led by young participants themselves, we collected a wealth of testimonies, real-life experiences, and concrete ideas. These contributions became the foundation for the creation of our Digital Well-being Guide, illustrated in the form of a comic book.
We created the Disconnect to Reconnect project in response to a real lack of awareness among young people about the challenges linked to the rapid evolution of digital technology, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Many of the young people we work with show addictive behaviors related to the excessive use of screens — especially smartphones and social media. They often lack the tools to step back, reflect, and restore a healthy balance in their digital lives. At the same time, many believe that using computers or electronic devices automatically makes them “modern” or “eco-responsible,” without fully understanding the hidden environmental impact of these technologies — from high energy consumption to resource extraction and digital pollution. This project therefore aimed to shed light on more conscious and beneficial uses of digital tools, promoting both youth well-being and the health of our planet.