• How do digital possibilities affect democracy and our mental well-being?
• How can we find balance in our digital lives and our presence in the physical world?
• How can we help other young people achieve that balance?

These were some of the questions explored and reflected upon by 40 young people from 4 countries in an Erasmus+ funded activity at Gentofte Ungdomsskole in the fall of 2025. 

Participants came from

Gentofte Ungdomsskole, Denmark

ZSS Klodzko, Poland

CZM Domzale, Slovenia

Romanian Angel Appeal, Romania

Activities

The week consisted of various activities to ensure getting to know eachother and having time to learn about youth life across Europe. Icebreakers, games, hangout and a bit of time to experience the wonderful, and in this week, sunny Copenhagen!

Workshops throughout the week with different purposes (exploring & gaining knowledge, balancing life, producing & presenting) were designed to help us answer the 3 questions above.

@headspacegentofte made us reflect on Mental well-being in a hyperconnected world. How does productive screen time affect us vs. mindless doom scrolling? How can positive online communities make us feel vs. what negative feelings can come from what we see and how we interact online? What does a perfect break from digital life look like? 

@udskolingshuset had designed 6 workshops on Democracy and the digtital world especially for us. During Tuesday we played Data-Fish, tried to pursuade a AI-generated US boarder controller to let us into the country, built a society from scratch - deciding whether education, law, health care ect. should be developed first - and much more.

We also had time to pay a visit to the Gentofte City Hall, where the mayor showed us the council room and told us about the local democracy and how young people can influence politics in Gentofte.

Wednesday we visited the @Ungdomsøen (Youth Island) and tried their

Democracy Run, exploring how to democratically agree on important decisions in society, based on good arguments.

Thursday @Pauline Rós from the Polish group hosted a talk about critical thinking. Maybe the most important skill in a democratic, digital world with endless possibilites, but also mis- and disinformation, different intentions and constant overload of news.

In between these workshops we practised putting away our phones and getting out of our heads with different workshops to give tools to balancing digital and analog life. Outdoor fun and games, bon fire, creative workshops and trying to learn line dancing - just being present and relaxing without reels :-)

In the end of the week everyting materialised into podcasts and small videos. You can see them and listen in here (coming!)