Reclaiming Digital Wellbeing: Reflections from the RECLAIM Hackathon

The University of É«ÖÐÉ« recently hosted the RECLAIM Hackathon, bringing together researchers, creative practitioners, youth organisations, and civic partners from across Europe to explore how young people experience digital environments and how new approaches to digital wellbeing might be developed. Designed as a collaborative workshop, the event aimed to create a space where different forms of expertise including academic research, creative practice, and lived experience could be brought together.

A central and integral feature of the first day was the inclusion of young people themselves. Participants aged 15-26 were invited to take part in a series of collaborative sessions, sharing their experiences of navigating online spaces and contributing directly to discussions about digital wellbeing. In this way, the event sought to foreground their perspectives and involve them in shaping the emerging questions and ideas.

Across the two days, participants worked through a range of activities designed to explore how digital platforms influence everyday life, from collaborative mapping exercises to creative design sessions. These discussions provided an opportunity to reflect on the complexity of young people’s digital experiences and to begin considering how future research might better respond to them.

 

Day One: Understanding Young People’s Digital Worlds

                               Jargon Busting: A Lived Experience Lexicon  
      

The first activity of the hackathon immediately placed young people’s perspectives at the centre of the discussion. While terms like “screen addiction” and “online safety” are often used in describing young people’s digital lives, participants were asked to reflect on how well they actually reflect young people’s everyday experiences online.

Working together in small groups, researchers, practitioners, and young participants compared a variety of terms. Although some phrases like “doom scrolling” and “healthy digital habits” were widely known, each participant brought their own understandings to the discussion provoking us to consider each term outside of our own definitions. Other phrases like “low key / high key” were less known among participants, during these moments younger participants emerged as experts of digital language providing their groups with nuanced definitions of popular online terminology. The exercise quickly revealed both the usefulness and the limitations of existing language and created an environment where each contribution was equally valued, bridging the gap between participants. Overall, this activity highlighted the importance of grounding discussions of digital wellbeing in lived experience.

 

Digital Lives Investigation Board

 

Building on these discussions about language and lived experience, the next activity encouraged participants to consider the broader digital environments that shape young people’s everyday lives. In this session, groups worked collaboratively to map the different pressures, risks, and opportunities that exist within young people’s digital ecosystems.

Using a shared screen and a range of creative materials, groups constructed an “investigation board” exploring the factors that influence digital wellbeing. These included social dynamics, platform design, algorithmic feeds, and the ways in which online spaces can act as both sources of connection and pressure. Each contribution to the board sparked new and insightful discussions, highlighting how digital wellbeing is shaped not by a single factor, but by a complex network of social, technological and cultural influences.

 

 

The Mobile Neuroscience Lab

 

Having explored the everyday realities of digital life, the next session introduced participants to some of the scientific tools used to study digital engagement. Participants were introduced to portable brain-scanning technology capable of measuring neural activity during digital gameplay.

Watching the technology in action prompted conversations about how researchers examine attention, engagement, and cognitive response in digital settings. It also raised interesting questions about how scientific research might connect with the lived experiences that had surfaced earlier in the workshop.

               

 

Library and Media Innovation

 

The Library & Media Innovation session shifted the focus toward the role of civic institutions in supporting digital wellbeing, with particular attention given to how libraries are positioned in different national contexts. Examples from Finland and Wales highlighted how libraries can function as key community hubs, not only for access to information but as spaces that actively support learning, wellbeing, and social connection. These discussions emphasised how different countries frame libraries as part of a broader civic infrastructure, with varying degrees of integration into public health, education, and community services.

Participants also reflected on how such institutions can contribute to preventative approaches to mental health, offering accessible environments where young people can engage critically with digital culture. Alongside this, the session considered the role of libraries in shaping responsible public narratives around young people’s digital lives, moving beyond simplified portrayals toward more nuanced and supportive understandings.

 

 

 

Following this discussion, participants were invited to translate these ideas into a more tangible and imaginative form through another creative activity. Using a range of materials, including clay, groups were asked to construct their ideal version of a library as a civic space, incorporating the many ideas generated on day one. The session took on a playful, world-building quality, encouraging participants to move beyond existing institutional constraints and instead imagine what a library designed to support young people’s digital wellbeing could be.

Through this process, participants created speculative environments that reflected a wide range of possibilities, from flexible and inclusive spaces for collaboration and creativity to quieter areas for reflection and digital learning. The emphasis on play allowed ideas to develop more freely, supporting experimentation and encouraging participants to think beyond what currently exists toward what might be possible. In doing so, the activity reinforced the value of creative methods in opening up new ways of thinking about the role of civic spaces in supporting healthier relationships with digital environments.

 

 

After a day spent unpacking the realities of young people’s digital lives, the focus of the event began to shift. The discussions, activities, and perspectives shared on the first day had generated a wide range of ideas about the pressures and possibilities within digital environments.

The second day of the hackathon invited participants to build on these conversations by thinking more practically about how such insights might inform future research and potential interventions aimed at supporting healthier digital engagement.

 

Day Two: Building Ideas Together (Lego Lab)

 

The first session of the day introduced a creative systems-mapping exercise using Lego. Participants worked in small groups to construct models representing the relationships between digital environments, social influences, and potential points of intervention.

Exploring these ideas through Lego fostered a productive environment for idea generation. In a similar way to the earlier Jargon Busting activity, the use of Lego allowed participants to express ideas outside of the constraints that academic language and disciplinary perspectives can sometimes impose. The models encouraged open-minded and creative thinking, enabling participants to conceptualise what healthier digital environments for young people might look like, rather than limiting discussions to what initially seemed practical or possible.

Rather than acting as a standalone activity, these models became the foundation for the discussions that followed throughout the day. As participants shared and reflected on each model, new ideas and perspectives began to emerge, providing a tangible way of thinking through the complexities of digital wellbeing.

As the workshop progressed, these models provided a starting point for developing possible intervention ideas. Participants used the structures they had created to explore where meaningful changes might occur within digital ecosystems, considering how research insights, creative practices, and youth engagement might contribute to supporting healthier digital experiences.

Discussions then expanded to consider how such ideas might be implemented in practice. Participants reflected on how interventions could operate across different cultural and social contexts, and what ethical and practical considerations would need to be addressed when working with young people in different environments.

The event concluded with a final consolidation session in which participants summarised the key ideas that had come to light across the two days and discussed the next steps for developing the project. This session focused primarily on outlining responsibilities and immediate actions following the workshop.

 

Keeping Young People’s Voices at the Centre

 

The RECLAIM hackathon created a space for researchers, practitioners, and young people to come together and reflect on the complexities of digital life. Over the course of two days, participants moved from questioning the language used to describe digital wellbeing, to mapping the pressures and possibilities within online environments, and finally to exploring how new approaches might promote healthier, more connected lives for young people.

One of the most important aspects of the event was the central role played by young people themselves. Their contributions ensured that discussions about digital wellbeing remained grounded in lived experience, rather than abstract assumptions about how digital technologies shape young people’s lives.

The creative and collaborative format of the hackathon also highlighted the value of bringing together different forms of expertise. By combining research insights, participatory activities, and open discussion, the event demonstrated how interdisciplinary collaboration can open new ways of approaching complex challenges.

While the conversations that began during the hackathon will continue to develop in the months ahead, the event itself marked an important first step in building a shared understanding of how healthier digital environments might be imagined and created and if the event demonstrated anything, it was that meaningful conversations about digital wellbeing must begin by listening to the voices of the young people who navigate these digital environments daily.