A short film about an absent-minded, smartphone obsessed teenager took the top prize of €2,000 at this year’s What’s Your Story? competition.
The winning video Power Off was created by students from Colaiste Muire Cobh and Cobh Community College in County Cork. Also from Colaiste Muire, Sam Mulcahy won best individual (8-12 years) for his video Bill’s Obsession with Social Media.
The secondary school category was won by a team from Loreto College in Cavan for their two-minute video Nomophobia describing the angst suffered by students when without their smartphones for a period of time.
Rachel Thorton from Co. Kildare took the individual honour in the 13 years+ category for her short My Road to Recovery about taking control of her technology which had a hugely positive impact on her life.
The winners of the primary school category was the team from Togher National School from Dunmanway, Co. Cork for Access Denied, which discussed what they would change about the Internet.
A group of young students from Boherbue in Galway were group winners in the 8-12 years group category for Changing Online Perceptions, while the winners in the 13 years+ group category came from Bohermeen in Co. Meath for Breaking the Silence.
“This year we asked students ‘what would you change about your digital life?’ and more than two-thirds of the entries related to obsessive social media behaviour and how smartphones consume such a huge part of their lives. Aside from the obvious opportunities presented by technology, the videos highlighted the importance of balancing time online and offline,” said Nicola Buckley, What’s Your Story? programme manager at Trend Micro EMEA.
Commenting on the entries this year, Derek Chambers, CEO Reachout Ireland, said: “The What’s Your Story? competition really tapped into one of the most important issues for Irish young people, their relationship with technology and how to manage it. This is something that we’re hearing about all of the time through ReachOut.com and the competition entries really resonated with us. Young people are telling us about their digital lives and we need to pay attention, we may even find it helpful in our own personal battles with digital overload.”
Judges of the What’s your Story? competition spanned a range of companies and organisations working in the areas of Internet safety, media literacy, and technology from organisations like WebWise, Young Irish Film Makers, TY Ireland, ReachOut, Facebook and Twitter.
“The standard of film making was excellent across the board,” said competition judge Garry McHugh, director of Young Irish Film Makers. “The young film makers showed fantastic creativity, strong storytelling and a great sense of humour thrown in. I think we are looking at the next generation of content creators and film makers of Ireland.”
The winning entries can be viewed at https://whatsyourstory.trendmicro.ie.
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