![If young people regret the lockdown… it’s time to make ‘Pandemonium’! If young people regret the lockdown… it’s time to make ‘Pandemonium’!](https://media.famigliacristiana.it/2024/5/pandemonio_3415713.jpg)
The latest survey on the digital well-being of children carried out by Pepita on a sample of 600 students of the Metropolitan City of Milan clarified that beyond the 60% of kids (11-17 years old) regret the lockdown period. A shocking fact, even more so considering that around 75% of young people When asked, he reveals that he hears them often anxious. 55% of the sample, in fact, denounces the lack of adults able to really take care of them. L’80% of the boys confessed to fall asleep with in hand the smartphone. 47% wouldn’t know who to turn to in case of urgency or necessity. Un teenagers in 10 makes/has made use of psychotropic drugs. Over half of kids wake up thinking that the day won’t be positive, while only the 30% think that the future will hold pleasant surprises.
It is from this scenario that the urgency for Pepita Onlus arises, in collaboration with Carolina Foundationthe reality that bears the name of the first victim of cyberbullying Carolina Picchio, to give kids a voice. Making a real Pandemonium like the title of the project. What is that Pandemonium? This is a working group coordinated by Pepita educators, but managed independently by a group of students, between 17 and 19 years old, who feel the need to actively participate in building their own future. A future that, from the pandemic onwards, the adult world has not been able to deliver to the new generations, less and less involved in the planning and narration of that “tomorrow” that institutions are struggling to free from the logic and languages of the present and the past:
A school always the same;
A market of work focused on the last century;
Digital seen as an enemy;
Failure to participate to the public life of the so-called “under”;
Themes such as the protection of the environment and the centrality of the person, both flaunted and relegated to the margins of institutional activity;
The great challenge of psychophysical well-being of younger citizens, increasingly connected, but paradoxically increasingly alone.
These are just some of the concepts on the table for Pandemonium, the first think tank created by young people to give voice not only to the protests, but above all to the proposals of a “youth planet” light years away from an adult debate that is too often superficial and self-referential.
Let’s start from here, how are our kids described? Do they really feel represented by the main stream? Are they really that apathetic, distant, violent and absorbed in their smartphones all day long? What do the new generations want, what do they dream and what fears, needs and hopes do they have in common?
The seven boys of pandemonium who will give voice to their generation
Etymology
Pandemonium is an ironic title of a path that aims to give voice to young people, talk WITH young people (and not just ABOUT young people), welcome all their requests, starting from that “chaos” typical of transitional ages, characterized by a “hodgepodge” of emotions that necessarily must be welcomed, understood, reordered and channeled.
Although with different etymologies, the “pandemonium” wants to respond to the deafening silence generated by the pandemic, it was born as a message of life and recovery after the numerous restrictions and distances. Over the years, the working group has been able to relate to local institutions and actors, starting from Lombardy and budding actions and interactions even on a national scale to the point of representing a small/large reference to allow adults with educational responsibilities to intercept needs, fears , hopes and proposals directly from the kids.
Teenagers as an integral part of the dialogue aimed at strengthening an educational pact still to be built: from school to free time, from the right to sport to entry into the world of work.
A pandemonium made of concrete ideas, which the girls and boys have chosen to entrust to Pepita, the cooperative of educators who for over 15 years have been collecting the requests of minors and bringing them to the table of the “adults” with the ambition of building a new educational pact available to all.
THE “PANDEMONIO” PODCASTS
During the experimental phase of the project, the experience of the children gained in open discussions with educational institutions and local administrators helped them to organize themselves into working groups focused on highly topical issues: from education to the relationship with new technologies, from road safety to integration and social inclusion policies. Themes to be explored in depth also through a series of podcasts, to make content developed and proposed in their language available to all new generations. Without filters, without superstructures, outside the mainstream and by the narrative of the media and politics.
The initiative, in addition to the Pepita pedagogists and the Carolina Foundation experts, will be open to the world of influencers. Web stars will be involved in some of the desk themes activated in these first series of podcasts.
WHAT IS LOVE
The first series of podcasts revolves around the concept of “Affectivity”. A central topic in terms of values, relationships and knowledge underlying respect for people and feelings, for one’s own body and that of others. A journey into the emotions of young people that passes through fears, experiences, expectations and temptations.
Each of these emotional stages will be the subject of an episode of the first Pandemonio podcast: “What is love”, distributed by autumn on the main platforms and online stores.