Teens Tell Melinda French Gates What Adults Should Know About Their Lives Online

Four, three, two, one. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Three, two, one. Two, one. Two, one. Two, one. Two, one. One, one, one, one. Technology can be a powerful tool for connection, information and inspiration, but the digital age also carries challenges for young people's mental health. In Nashville, Larissa May and the Half the Story team, in partnership with Girls Inc., are working to help young people, especially girls, develop healthier relationships with technology in a world where there's constant pressure to post on social media and keep up with the news. As part of a generation that grew up with this technology, the girls I talk to see it through different eyes and that gives them a perspective anyone who cares about digital well-being should listen to. My name is Larissa May. Most girls call me Lars, and I'm the founder and executive director of Half the Story. Digital wellness is the idea that you can develop a positive and healthy relationship with technology. It's really about understanding the holistic well-being. What we're really measuring is behavior change around digital wellness, and we do that through game design because wicked problems need wicked games. Actually measuring, are we able to change the way that young people see themselves online and offline? Are we giving them the skills that's actually getting them to sleep more at night or to focus more, or more importantly, to sit in their own emotions so that they can actually build connections with others? Kennedy, can you reveal some of the emotions for us? Let's reveal! Social media can be a weapon or a tool, and when we use it the right way, stories have the power to change the world. And for me, 10 years ago, I was at the darkest moment of my life and almost took my life because of technology and the toll that it took on me. And in the wake of going through that experience, one thing that I always loved doing was telling stories. My name is Bailey. I'm very passionate about theater and supporting mental health, telling people to be yourself. My name is Vanna, and I'm interested in dance. I'm interested in video games. I'm interested in telling stories, and I'm interested in making new friends and connecting with lots of people. My first memory of social media was in the fifth grade when everyone around me started having Instagram and different things, and I had friends that I wanted to talk to, and I remember getting it on my tablet. It was really nice. I followed my friends and realized I was like, it's kind of dry, but what am I supposed to do with this? It allows stories to be told that weren't previously told to people who were silenced. It allows people to see themselves, but the one thing I really wish I could change is just all the editing. It's so fake, and it isolates people from the real world, and I wish that people saw the reality of some of it and realize how fake social media and online is. We're at a moment in time where we don't have enough women heroes that have platforms, and our girls need role models. All of the big tech companies are not led by women, and as a result, both the men and the women are suffering. But when I see Melinda showing up in spaces to give people like me a reason to show up, because I know that writing a new story is possible, that's what keeps this going. What do you think adults get wrong about young people in their use of, say, the phone or social media? I think that they get wrong that, like, they're just trying to use it as an escape for everything. Half the story has made my relationship with social media more of a positive one and confident, giving me the assurance that, like, I have the control over my social media, like, I pick what I consume and how it affects my feelings. So definitely, like, creating a better relationship with it. Do you guys have any schools that are, like, phone-free schools, or? We walk in, they have to do a bag check, they scan us with a wand, they put in thunder pouches, and then put it in a bucket, and they put it in, like, they said they're, like, a classroom. Yeah. Like, in an empty classroom and lock it. What? Wow. Like, the best. You can lie easily over text, but I think it's good to see someone's emotions. Yeah. I feel like it's better to talk things out in person. Like, you guys already have so much technology available to you, and, like, on our computers, it's not really, they don't really restrict much on it. I never really talked about my experience online much, and, I mean, I understood why some of the things I went through in moving through social media wasn't something that I should have done, and I realized how many other kids have had these same struggles, and it helped me realize that I'm not the only one. Thinking critically about the ways that social media affects our peers, affects your parents, affects the adults around you, affects your community, and really thinking about, like, how is it affecting you? How can you be able to create change with it? And that is really powerful to know that we are actually giving young people the skills to be in power and be the heroes as opposed to the victims, and sometimes as a woman, all you want to hear is that you can be the hero of your own story, and that's enough to keep you going.