PREserve: Preserving Mental Health in the Time of Social Media (Ab)use (YE May 2023)

Project Details

Mental health in young adults is becoming a real concern. Young people’s mental health problems are increasing over time and general practitioners are looking after and/or referring more young people to mental health services, mostly with long waiting times.

Young people are being strongly influenced by the social media, and this comes with a set of risks of affecting the mental health of those who found themselves under peer pressure through social media “challenges”, which are oftentimes very dangerous (and some have lead to death of individuals); unattainable beauty standards caused by filtered photos and videos, which are not a representation of reality, as well as cyberbullying which is omnipresent and has an immense eect on those aected, which have on occasions went as far as to individuals committing suicide because they saw no other way out.

This is why we decided to address this issue and carry out a project which will focus on raising awareness about mental health issues arising from social media abuse and also equip the participants with knowledge and skills on how to use social media in a proactive way to make a positive impact on the society.

Objectives
The following objectives have been identified:
● to raise awareness about the potential negative impacts of social media on mental health among young people;
● to raise knowledge and understand of the ways in which social media use aects mental health among young people;
● to increase participants ́ competences by identify strategies and resources to help preserve mental well-being in digital age;
● to strengthen participants creative competences by developing educational materials and workshops for young people on the safe and healthy use of social media;
● to encourage the promotion of the importance of mental health among young people and the need for support and resources through building a partner network with the participating organizations;
● to raise knowledge and understanding of the Erasmus+ programme, Youth Pass, as well as non-formal learning.

Learning Methods
The following learning methods have been identified:
● Ice-breakers, energisers and team building activities to encourage the participants to get to know each other and each other’s culture
● Outdoor activity to encourage reconnecting to nature and disconnecting from the social media channels
● Workshops with creative and informative content to support the process of learning and encourage debates and discussions
● Self-reflection activities to promote critical thinking of the participants as well as progress tracking
● Individual assignments and simulations to equip the participants with skills on how to use social media in proactively.