From screen time to chatbots, a new festival in Toronto is helping young Canadians take back control of their digital lives.
A new digital health festival has been launched to rally teenagers around the idea that they don't have to be online all the time.
Yesterday at Meridian Hall Toronto Rally hosted thousands of young students, parents, teachers, experts, policymakers and cultural leaders to share how the next generation of Canadians can build healthy relationships with and without technology.
“We want to help schools find solutions and help teenagers understand that it’s okay to be unavailable.”
Keith Wallace
Rally
While a large portion of the population relies heavily on their smartphones, Rally co-founder Keith Wallace emphasized that the rise of social media and other technology platforms coincided with a growing youth mental health crisis.
“This is a real problem, and if we don't start helping teenagers today [with] manage it, by the time they get to work, we're all going to have real problems,” Wallace told BetaKit.
Wallace, former general manager of the tech-focused Collision Conference, and his wife, entertainment host and content creator Bridget Truong, teamed up to launch Rally as a means of bringing teens and their support networks together in one room to connect and learn how to better manage their tech diet. One of the goals, Wallace said, is to “make being offline cool.”
Wallace said many teenagers today feel the need to always be online. Through Rally, he hopes to remind them that it doesn't have to be.
“We want to help schools find solutions and help teenagers understand that it’s okay to be unavailable,” he added.
He credits Truong for coming up with the idea during the pandemic while the couple was locked in their apartment, running through dark plots and dealing with their own screen time issues. After years of working in tech and cryptocurrency and feeling manipulated by platforms to monetize people's attention, he said he wanted to do something “with a bigger purpose.”
CONNECTED: Amber Mac wants parents to know their kids are talking to artificial intelligence
The goal of the first one-day Rally event, which was free to students, was to prove the concept and break even, and Wallace says the company is in the process of achieving that goal with support from partners including Bell Let's Talk, CAMH, Canada Health Infoway, CIRA, Digital Moment, Meridian Credit Union, Snapchat, Telus and the City of Toronto. In the long term, the rally will become an annual event.
Yesterday's program featured a DJ who took requests, as well as a variety of speakers who gave brief talks and presentations and interacted with visitors. Discussion topics included mental health and digital wellbeing, media literacy, self-expression and identity, the future of work and social impact.
The hearing began with presenters urging attendees to turn off their phones, and the audience was loud and engaged, with fewer lit screens than traditionally seen at an event of this size.
Motivational speaker Sam Demma, who took the Rally stage with a big red backpack, told BetaKit that everyone has a giant invisible backpack with stories, thoughts and beliefs about themselves. He stressed the need for teens to monitor their tech and social media diets to ensure they have the best in their backpacks, reach out to others for support when their backpacks become too heavy, and regularly check in on how the people around them are doing.
Tonya Johnson, head of communications for Canada at event partner Snapchat, says events like the Rally are important. She said the purpose of Snapchat's involvement was to contribute to the conversation about online safety.
While Snapchat is particularly popular among Canadian youth and teens, the company yesterday focused on educating parents and teachers about how its app works and the tools it offers to ensure young people using its platform do so safely.
Year 12 student and Youth Advisory Committee member Simran Sodha told BetaKit that she believes social media can be a great place to develop offline connections, but said it is easy to determine your self-worth based on likes, follows and comments on Instagram or TikTok. She noted that it can easily become overwhelming.
“It’s very difficult to take a break and create healthy boundaries,” Sodha said.
“It's just important that we don't all speak a foreign language. If we're all speaking in an AI voice, then we're not really communicating.”
Simran Sodha,
12th grade student
Constantly viewing “perfect, idealized” versions of other people's lives, especially when a woman is subjected to unattainable beauty standards and online toxicity, can have negative consequences, she said. To combat this issue, Sodha said she and her friends created their own limits on screen time and found setting such boundaries effective.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has created new headaches, she said. Sodha says that while many of her peers use it, teens should remember that there is a key difference between using it for work and replacing their own efforts.
“It’s just important that we don’t all speak a foreign language,” Sodha said. “If we're all speaking in an AI voice, then we're not really communicating.”
Sodha worries that her peers are increasingly turning to chatbots as friends or therapists. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently suggested The answer to the loneliness epidemic may be individuals with artificial intelligence. Although Wallace doesn't have a child yet, he said he doesn't want chatbots to represent the future of friendship.
Wallace and Sodha believe there should be strict age restrictions and stricter regulation for this type of technology.
Demma faced mental health problems after serious knee injuries prevented him from securing a scholarship and ambitions to become a professional footballer. He found it difficult to go on social media and see his friends achieving their dreams when he couldn't. While Demma believes that celebrating the success of others is healthy, he argues that it can be very unhealthy if that's all you do and it makes you feel less worthy.
CONNECTED: Artificial intelligence takes center stage at Elevate premiere
He credited a teacher who channeled his passion into social impact and the year-long social media detox he took at 21 for helping him get through this difficult period.
“I was so afraid that my life would fall apart… and the opposite happened,” Demma said. “I built deeper relationships in real life [and] “I booked more events than I thought I was going to book this year, even though I wasn’t on everyone’s timelines and feeds.”
Year 11 student and Youth Advisory Committee member Ash McArthur grew up with an iPad in his hand and said he and many of his friends were trying to build a healthier relationship with technology. Some don't have phones at all, and others either set limits on screen time themselves or have parents who did, he told BetaKit.
MacArthur echoed Demma's message. “Just hang up. No matter how hard it is, you won't miss anything online when you're doing real life.”
Image courtesy of Rally. Photo by Robert Okin.
