Find your way out of digital addiction labyrinth - TECHBYRINTH

Background According to the study “Harmful internet use, Part II: Impact on culture and society” carried by the Panel for the Future Science and Technology of the European Parliament daily use of internet increases 90 % amongst 15-24-year-olds. Internet use is heavy amongst adolescents, with a United Kingdom study showing that 12-15-year-olds spend an average of 21 hours per week online, next to 18 hours on a mobile phone. Europeans aged 16-24-year-old spend 168 minutes per day on mobile internet. Social media is used by 88 % of 15-24-year-olds, 80 % using it daily, and daily use is 59 % for 25-39-year-olds. Some 4.4 % of European adolescents show pathological internet use that affects their lives and health, while 13.5 % of adolescents engage in maladaptive internet use behaviours. Similar numbers have been reported for adults. TECHNOLOGICAL ADDICTION — called INTERNET ADDICTION, INTERNET USE DISORDER (IUD) or Internet addiction disorder (IAD) — is a fairly new phenomenon. It’s often described by psychologists as a serious problem involving the inability to control use of various kinds of technology, in particular the Internet, smartphones, tablets and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Objectives The main objective of Techbytrinth has been to provide youth workers with an innovative, free and useful tool to fight effectively against digital addictions, especially in the youth field, providing youth workers with an intuitive, dynamic and interactive application (IO1) that is excellently suited to the youth field in which it has been applied, generating a positive impact, identifying the different types of uses that currently exist with regard to young people and redirecting missusages in a novel way. At the same time, an EDUCATIONAL KIT (IO2) has been provided, which contain a large amount of information especially useful for youth workers, divided into an information manual, a methodological guide and a training for youth workers, providing them with all the necessary information for the implementation of the IO1. Thus, with both tools, the main objectives have been achieved, providing youth workers with a dynamic and innovative tool for the identification and reduction of digital addictions and missbehaviours in young people. Implementation P1 –Deses3 was in charge of the coordination of the project (A1). P1 created and maintained the project website (A7). P1 uses non-formal education in all their activities, collaborated with P4 in the designing of the gamified quiz of the app (IO1/A2). P1 organized the pilot phase (IO2/A3), collected feedbacks (IO2/A4). P2- DAFO created a quality management plan and quality controls (A2), the evaluation of the project in terms of quality and impact (A9). P2/P4 created the process of detecting risks through gamified real life scenarios (IO1/A1). P2 designed the methodological guide, training plan (IO2/A1). P2 selected the youth workers for the training (I02/A2). P3 –ADEL coordinated the dissemination and social media account (A7). Also, P3 was in charge of an Internal pilot test (IO1/A3). P3 did the training for youth workers, the pilot phase, collected the feedback. P4 – T4E created an informative manual about the risks related to the misusage of internet (IO2/A1), with advice or overcoming possible IAD. P4 was in charge of the tech part of the app (IO1/A2), created the BETA VERSIONS according to the feedbacks(IO1/A4) and edited the app (IO1/A5). P4 implemented the training (I and the pilot phase, and collected the feedback. Achievements TECHBYRINTH expected both tangible and intangible sustainable results, which has achieved the objectives set and has targeted the priorities chosen. THE MAIN TANGIBLE RESULTS has been two intellectual outputs, which has been concretized into free educational resources which has supported youth workers and educators in their work and has improved their digital competences, by enabling to detect and prevent technological misuses and online misbehaviors. INTANGIBLE RESULTS The intangible results were expected to be seen in the target group involved during several activities of the project and all the users of the APP and Educational KIT in terms of: - Raised AWARENESS about the risks generated by the misuse of technologies and online misbehaviours and the impact it has on their lives - DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL SKILLS according to Digcomp. - EXPANDED KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS of the youth workers in using innovative educational resources to detect and prevent internet addiction - AN INCREASEMENT OF RESPONSIBLE USE of technology and internet - Youth workers enabled to provide a structured process of prevention, detention and training of digital skills and competences