On 8 July, Kent’s Vice Chancellor and President Georgina Randsley de Moura, together with the University’s Outreach & Widening Participation team, hosted a special performance of Generation FOMO by Isabelle Defaut, followed by a panel Q&A. Generation FOMO, a verbatim play created from authentic interviews with young people aged 11-25 about their relationships to phones and social media, was devised by one of Kent Drama’s Graduate Theatre Companies, Portrait Theatre.
Clare Allison, Head of Outreach & Widening Participation, told us: ‘There has been a huge amount of discussion recently around the use of mobile phones and social media, and the impact that this is having on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The event was designed to gather educational leaders in the region to galvanise discussion and collective action to address the issues raised in the performance. There was real electricity in the room and having such important people sitting up, taking notice and engaging in the discussion was fantastic.’
The play has been expanded to include ‘The Social Experiment’, an ongoing piece of research devised by Isabelle Default (writer and producer of Generation FOMO), and led by Dr Lindsey Cameron in the School of Psychology. To take part young people (and their teachers) volunteer to swap smartphones for ‘dumb phones’ – a simple Nokia model and a Dictaphone, to record their feelings for a week. Dr Cameron interviews all participants before and after, and is collating their responses to be published at a later date. The play and related social experiment has gained a lot of press attention.
‘Excellent performance, really powerful and important piece of work … I hope the work inspires continued open and honest conversation in all schools, families and communities!’
The post-performance panel featured insight from Dr Lindsey Cameron, teachers Stefan Peto (Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys) and Emma Ritchie (The Whitstable School), representatives from the parent led group Whitstable Unplugged, a Year 12 student who had participated in The Social Experiment, along with perspectives from writers and actors from Portrait Theatre. Chaired by Clare Allison, the panel had a rich and wide-ranging discussion about the development of the play, the importance of modelling regulated mobile phone use in the home, along with practical ways that parents and teachers can support young people navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Outreach & Widening Participation have invested in both the play and associated research, and there are plans to continue the important conversations that this event started, by way of a conference in the 25/26 academic year. Isabelle Default, Artistic Director of Portrait Theatre, said: ‘I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the University of Kent’s Outreach Department. Their support has been instrumental in helping us reach such a wide audience in just 12 months. Without them, this simply wouldn’t have been possible. Generation FOMO is currently in the process of booking its third tour of the show this year! We will be continuing the work we are doing with secondary schools around Kent and beyond, in September.’