In the Community: Exploring Mental Health and Digital Wellness with Youth at Minds-On

On August 7, we were back with our community partner, Minds-On in Whitby, ON, for another summer session to discuss the intersection of mental health and well-being, learning, and technology with youth (ages 13-16)! The interactive session included four scaffolded activities, and the youth shared incredible insights into their tech use and strategies for optimizing technology features for well-being.

Activity 1: What is Mental Health?

In groups, we started our time together by brainstorming what "good mental health" and "poor mental health" can look, sound, and feel like within ourselves and those around us.

Highlights from the youth:

Good Mental Health	Poor Mental Health
Positive moods (happiness) Talkative and "willing to be social or hang out with your friends" Smiling and laughing Doing nice things for other people Paying attention and "being engaged" (with people, at school) Thinking positively about themselves and sees the good in other people Positive body language	Sadness Aggression or "lashing out" "Zoning out" or "ignoring people" Sleeping a lot or insomnia Self-isolating Lack of energy Negative thoughts about self or others Stressed all of the time Grades dropping Not talking or communicating

Activity 2: Exploring Our Favourite Tech

Then, each person shared the top two types of technology (devices, apps, platforms) they use the most often, and added their picks to their group's chart paper.

Favourites from the group:

• Smartphones

• Playstation 5

• Xbox

• TV (to stream)

• Spotify

• Snapchat

• TikTok

• Facebook

• Instagram

Activity 3: Examining Risks and Benefits

In this activity, youth considered the tech they used most often and listed benefits to their well-being and possible risks.

Highlights from the youth:

Benefits	Risks
Positive moods (happiness) Stay connected to my friends after school and during summer Self-expression (creating and sharing content on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook( Entertainment when I'm bored Access to information Helps me relax (playing video games, listening to music, watching TV)	Procrastinating (on schoolwork, chores) Staying up late scrolling and then tired the next day Exposure to inappropriate content Can negatively impact mood (streaming sad music, watching upsetting content) Bullying and seeing comments from 'trolls' FOMO Not hanging out with friends because I'm on my phone or gaming

Activity 4: Strategies for Digital Wellness

As a large group, we collaborated to identify possible strategies to reduce the impacts of the risks the youth outlined and promote well-being. During this activity, a few youth pulled out their phones and explored their screen time and "most used apps" to see where they could implement strategies the best!

Here's what the youth had to say:

• Set a timer on specific apps (e.g., social media)

• Block or ignore hurtful comments on posts

• "Find other hobbies or activities that I could do instead of using technology"

• "Put my phone in another room so I am not tempted"

• Click "not interested" on inappropriate videos/posts to reduce chance of seeing that content again

• "Not adding random people or accepting friend requests from people I don't know"

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Overall, the youth had excellent ideas about promoting mental health and well-being in a digital age - and it was great to see many of them had already implemented "screen time limits" on their social media apps!

Thank you, Minds-On, for having us - we're looking forward to continued work together!