Your Life Unplugged, amplifies young people’s voices in the conversation around social media (June 22nd to 29th June), when The University of Kent will be listening to the views and real-life experiences of young people.
Who are the real experts on the impact of social media on teenage lives? Who is most affected by the negative elements of social media? And who will the recently announced proposed government measures impact the most?
June 22nd – from The School of Psychology present their findings from The Social Experiment
The first findings from The School of Psychology, The Alternative Consultation, a major survey of 706 young people aged 11–17 and findings of a research project involving a digital detox The Social Experiment conducted in Kent secondary schools giving pupils the opportunity to swap their smartphones for a ‘brick’ phone for a week and reflect on how they felt. Dr Lindsey Cameron and Dr Katie Goodbun will present their findings to participants from local schools.
Out of the young people surveyed, the majority were 11-15 (7.6 % of them were 16 or over). Many of the young people surveyed recognised that social media can be addictive and can negatively affect wellbeing. At the same time, they described its importance in helping them stay connected with friends, maintain relationships and feel part of their social world.
The message from young people was clear: if adults want them to spend less time online, they need more opportunities to spend time offline.
This will be followed by the launch of the Canterbury Schools’ Pledge on Smartphones and Smart Devices
Participating schools, collaborating with advocacy group Whitstable Unplugged, will make a joint announcement:
‘As a collective of schools across the Canterbury district, we will create school environments that are free from smartphone access during the school day. Based on compelling evidence, this will enhance learning, mental wellbeing and social engagement.’
June 23rd – researchers explore AI and society in youth-led documentary series, Generation Cyber
Dr Jim Everett – psychologist – and Professor Shujun Li – cyber security expert – have teamed up with young presenters in KMTV’s documentary series Generation Cyber to help 11-15-year-olds learn about how AI is shaping the world, and what they can do to navigate ethics, safety and their relationship with the technology.
June 24th – Training practitioners to see online life from a child’s perspective
The Centre for Child Protection have developed a suite of ‘serious game’ training simulations to help practitioners see the online world from young people’s perspectives. Two of these simulations focus on social media and online gaming, using characters to create emotionally complex safeguarding scenarios that can be explored in a safe, reflective environment.
June 25th – Children and Young People’s Digital Well-being Taskforce
The launch of this multidisciplinary research group that brings together expertise from across the University of Kent to explore how social media, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and emerging technologies shape the lives, opportunities, relationships, learning, and well-being of children and young people.
With a primary focus on children, adolescents, and emerging adults up to the age of 25, the task force is committed to horizon scanning to identify emerging opportunities, challenges, and risks that may affect young people’s well-being, and innovative public engagement activity to share findings, and generate new insights in this fast-moving field.
June 26th What do young people make of the Prime Minister’s Proposed Measures?
The voices of local secondary school pupils aged 16-18 will be platformed on our social media channels. We ask them what they think of the Prime Minister’s proposals, what apps they can’t do without and what they think they need to replace them if they had to give them up.
June 29th Generation FOMO by Isabelle Defaut
The week culminates in two performances of the verbatim play Generation FOMO, which began the conversation between young people, adults and policy makers in 2024, toured and performed in schools as well as The Houses of Parliament at the start of 2026. Produced by Portrait Theatre, one of The School of Arts and Architecture’s Graduate Theatre Companies, this production will be performed by students from Canterbury Academy.
Generation FOMO plays at The Gulbenkian Theatre for one day only: June 29th, 7pm.
Find out about The Social Experiment and Your Life Unplugged.