CLIMAX TEAM: Students develop the story and escalate the problem, showing how digital imbalance affects the character’s wellbeing, relationships, and daily life

ARAL/RABIA, ARAL/ASLI, ARAL/ APO, ARAL/BUĞLEM, ARAL/DURU

Story Starter: Sofia enjoys using social media and follows many influencers and classmates. While scrolling through photos and stories, Sofia often compares her life, appearance, and achievements with others…

As the weeks pass, Sofia’s time on social media slowly increases. At first, she only checks her accounts for a few minutes after school. However, this habit soon becomes part of her daily routine. She starts scrolling during breakfast, on the way to school, during breaks, and late at night before going to sleep. Without even noticing it, Sofia spends several hours every day looking at photos, videos, and stories.

While scrolling, Sofia sees many posts from influencers and classmates showing perfect vacations, fashionable clothes, beautiful selfies, and exciting achievements. Some posts show expensive gifts, luxury lifestyles, or perfectly edited photos. The more Sofia looks at these posts, the more she begins to feel that her own life is not as exciting or successful as others’. She starts thinking that she is not attractive enough, not successful enough, and that her life is somehow “less interesting.”

Over time, these comparisons start affecting Sofia’s confidence and mood. She becomes more self-critical and starts focusing on her flaws. Sometimes she feels sad or frustrated after using social media, even though nothing bad actually happened during her day. At school, Sofia becomes quieter and less confident. She worries more about how others see her and sometimes feels that she does not fit in.

Because of this pressure, Sofia begins to change her behaviour. She spends a lot of time choosing the “perfect” photo before posting anything online. She edits pictures again and again and deletes posts if they do not receive enough likes or positive comments. Instead of enjoying moments with her friends, Sofia often thinks about how those moments will look on social media.

One evening, after scrolling through social media for a long time, Sofia suddenly feels overwhelmed. She notices that every time she compares herself with others online, her mood becomes worse and her confidence drops. Sitting alone in her room, she realises that social media is affecting her emotional wellbeing much more than she expected. For the first time, Sofia begins to understand that this constant comparison is becoming a serious problem

 RESOLUTION AND RECOVERY TEAM:

 Viktoria, Azime

 Resolution Team:  Students continue the story by recognising the problem and offering realistic, healthy solutions that restore digital balance.    

Sofia sat on her bed, holding her phone, but this time she wasn’t scrolling. For the first time in weeks, she stopped and really thought about how social media had been making her feel. Every time she compared herself to the photos and posts she saw online, her confidence dropped. She realized that although the pictures looked perfect, they did not show the full reality of people’s lives.