An interesting piece of work has come out recently, as many of you might have heard of: “TheSocialDilemma” (https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/). Reputation, credibility and competence of the authors are solid and quite reliable, almost indisputable, in my humble opinion.

Of course, “TheSocialDilemma” might be itself considered as kind of hoax, “clickbait” or different sort of monetization; one thing though should be considered to this regard: facts and numbers are quite reliable and methodology seems to me accurate i.e. peer review, consolidated studies. A couple of facts may be considered questionable: the direct and unique link between harm (or fatal harm) in the youth such as depression, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse and the use of socials; discrepancies, in my opinion, if there, would be negligible considering the magnitude of the phenomena. In addition, I could not find (yet) any relevant data and study about Europe zone, which I am sure do exist too.

That being said, I am personally (as of yet moderately) enthusiast about this new initiative, both as parent and as professional. Being a consultant, coach and educator on outdoor education, heavily involved on education and care of children and youth generations, I could not be more thrilled about it. More specifically, one aspect which I found relevant is how the Outdoor Education (Forest Kindergarten in particular) is profoundly and deeply connected to the Social use (or misuse, if you wish).

Firstly, outdoor education (and outdoor lifestyle in general) represents undoubtedly one of the most effective and healthy tool to counterbalance the use of social and this for obvious reasons; secondly, and this is a bit more subtle, the technology and therefore social and media in general, are not necessarily detrimental or harmful, even for the youth; different consideration for the children (0-6 yo) where I personally believe particular attention should be posed on the utilization of the electronic devices.

As obvious and trivial might this statement sounds, let me restate it: technology, including socials, saves lives, help people, improve standard of living and overall communication.

However, there are some “BUTs” that the qualified authors and promoters of this initiative have wisely and competently carried out. Hopefully, this will contribute to raise the bar of the awareness, giving also some chances to deep dive into the complexity of such delicate matter.

Best of luck!

Lorenzo.