Digital technology is an important part of students' lives. It can support learning, creativity and connection, but it can also affect sleep, focus, relationships and wellbeing. This makes digital habits a useful way to explore Your World and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) – Good Health and Wellbeing.
For students taking part in the Your World video competition, this theme offers plenty of opportunities to explore an issue that is close to their everyday lives. The activities below are simple starting points for the project. Students can use them to develop their thinking, or take their ideas in a completely different direction.
If you are looking for more inspiration for the competition, you can also explore ideas for how to inspire your students for the Your World video competition.
How much time do students actually spend looking at screens each day? A screen-time audit can help them move from guessing about their habits to looking at real data.
Ask students to track their screen use over a week. They could record how much time they spend on different activities, such as studying, gaming, watching videos, messaging or using social media.
Bring the results into class and use them to explore the data. Depending on the age and level of your students, they could calculate the mean and median, create graphs or compare different groups.
The activity can then move into discussion. Which activities take up the most time? Are there any patterns they didn’t expect? How does screen use fit into their sleep, exercise, schoolwork and time with friends and family?
The aim is not to decide that more or less screen time is always better. Instead, students can think about whether their digital habits support the way they want to spend their time.
Sleep is another useful starting point for exploring the relationship between digital habits and wellbeing.
Ask students to research what reliable sources say about sleep and screen use. They could look at questions such as how screen use before bed may affect sleep or how much sleep young people need.
Students can then design a simple experiment using their own habits. For example, they could try changing the time they stop using screens before bed for several days and record how they feel the next morning.
Give students a clear structure for recording their observations, tracking information such as how long they think they slept, how rested they felt and how easy they found it to get up.
Finish with a discussion about what they noticed. What surprised them? Did their experience match what they found in their research?
Digital tools can also be part of wider approaches to student wellbeing. For example, research explored in our article on technology and mindfulness among learners shows how educators can combine digital and non-digital approaches to support students.
Digital wellbeing is about more than personal habits. Students can also explore the wider choices that schools, families, technology companies and governments make.
Choose a question that connects with your students’ lives. For example:
Divide students into groups and ask them to research different perspectives. They should use reliable sources to support their arguments rather than relying only on personal opinions.
Students can then hold a structured debate. Encourage them to listen to opposing views and respond to evidence rather than simply trying to win.
Questions around technology can be particularly useful because there is rarely a simple answer. Exploring the opportunities and challenges of AI in education can also help students think about how new technologies affect learning and everyday life.
What would a healthy and balanced digital day look like? In small groups, ask students to design their ideal day. They could think about how they would use technology for learning, research, communication and entertainment, as well as when they would put their devices away.
Encourage them to consider the balance between screen-based activities and offline activities. Their plan might include time for exercise, sleep, hobbies, face-to-face conversations or simply doing nothing.
Each group can present its digital day to the class. Students can then compare their ideas. What do they agree on? Where do their priorities differ?
This activity can help students recognise that digital wellbeing does not mean removing technology from their lives. It means thinking carefully about how technology fits alongside other things that support their wellbeing.
Finally, ask students to turn their ideas into practical guidance for their school community.
As a class, create a digital wellbeing charter with agreed principles for healthy digital habits. Students could consider questions such as:
Students can work in groups to suggest rules, then discuss and combine their ideas into a final class charter.
You could display the finished version around the school or share it with other classes. You could also use it as the starting point for a Your World project, with students investigating one of the issues in more depth.
Schools looking at digital wellbeing as part of a wider approach can also explore how to develop a wellbeing framework for your school.
The Your World video competition is now live! These five activities provide starting points to help students explore the links between technology, health and wellbeing. Teams can use them to start conversations and develop students’ ideas for their own projects.
Your students may identify a different issue that matters to them and decide to take their project in another direction.
That is an important part of the Your World experience. Students use their own questions, experiences and ideas to explore the theme and decide what they want others to know.
Whether they investigate screen time, sleep hygiene, social media, AI or another aspect of digital wellbeing, encourage students to look beyond the technology itself. What impact does it have on their lives, their relationships and their wellbeing? What could they change, and what could others do differently?
Giving students space to explore these questions can help them build knowledge while developing research, communication and critical-thinking skills.
Ready to get started? Use these activities to open the conversation, then give your students the freedom to decide where their ideas take them for their competition entry. We can’t wait to see what you come up with! Find out more about this year's Your World competition and how to enter here.