Documentary unit: Treatment

  

Whilst maintaining a social life in the real world, Youtuber takes a week away from technology to see the effects on their health and wellbeing.

  

Jemma Cotterell, George Lock, Andreya Bramble, Connor Winfield

Synopsis

We are studying the effect of social media on our mental health, as studies subject over use can lead to feelings of isolation and depression. We will use a youtuber as our presenter and subject, whose job revolves around social media, to go on a ‘digital detox’- getting rid of all digital contact for a week, in which they must maintain their regular schedule to see if this helps their mental health, and whether they can survive in an analogue world. This programme would be aimed at the channel BBC 3, with a teenage/ young adult target audience.

Why This Story?

Teenagers are using technologies, like tablets and smartphones, at an increased rate due to the easy access of them. This access has caused some young people to be affected in various ways, which often leads them into depression and with little or no real interaction with others. 

Jeremy Shub said he dealt with young people aged from 12 to their mid-20s. He said males were most commonly drawn to excessive gaming while problematic use for females was more often with social media. “92% of teens report going online daily — including 24% of them who go online almost constantly,” according to a new study from Pew Research Center.

We are choosing to do this topic because we think that teenagers today are too focused on their technology and having the latest devices. It is apparent they are becoming separated from everyday life, with this becoming the dominant form of communication. We want to see what the benefits and effects are if someone was to go a week without the use of technology and believe aiming it at the teen market would be the best way to go.

Main Character Potential

Hannah Witton

·      Youtuber

·      25 Years Old

·      Over 300, 000 followers

·      Over 27,000,000 views collectively

·      Vlogs Weekly

·      Has her own written blog

·      Previously tried a 48-hour digital detox

·      In contact with her and management

Blog address

 www.hannahwitton.com

Youtube channel address:

www.youtube.com/user/hannahgirasol/featured

Treatment

Beginning with the stats, different facts and figures which will show evidence to back up our intentions, potentially use the subject as a voiceover and presenter. After the title of the project is displayed we will then introduce our main character. Ideally we’d like to have Youtuber as our subject because we wanted to have someone who would be comfortable in front of camera, after doing some research we discovered that women are more likely to use social media and feel more connected to it so therefore we’ve decided to use a female. Once our character has been introduced, an interview direct to the camera with her will explain their role within social media as well as how obsessive they are with social media and the effects. Then we can cut the interview into the doc at different points.

The main character will then go and visit an expert discussing the effects that social media has on the general public. This will be more focusing on the psychological and mental health issues and what they expect to see as a result of the subject not interacting with media.

Once we have some background information established we will begin the experiment. This consists of filming over 5 days where the subject will live without technology and the struggles that comes with it. Filming will take place at the subject's house although we plan to create some sequences which will make it difficult to do without technology, for example meeting up with a friend without any contact through social media. To make the detox more challenging the subject will have no mobile phone forcing them to stick to arrangements previously made. By having no internet or devices we believe this will be an interesting for the subject and the audience.

Interjecting during the experiment there will be a section about Benenden School where they previously conducted a ‘Phone Fast’. This is where students weren’t allowed to use their mobile phones for the course of 3 days in and out of school. Our main character will be interviewing pupils and how they found the restriction amongst carrying out the detox themselves.

The interviews will be done in professional sit down style in contrast to the experiment which will be done mainly handheld and in the style of a video diary. We have done it this way to create the distinction between actuality and professionalism.

Once the filming of the experiment is done we will conclude it by reviewing how the subject found their week, we will discuss what the benefits were and the negativities of the experience and how this will affect their life in the future. To tie up the documentary we will revisit the subject one week after the experiment to see if the experiment has had any impact on their life since.