For an hour and a half, groups of students play games, color, and do a puzzle together as popcorn pops in the background, adding to the ambiance of their conversations as they take a break from their phones and have fun, all the while connecting on a more personal level.
On March 26 at the Student Life Lounge in Iowa Hall, Active Minds hosted Disconnect to Reconnect, an event where people put down their devices to connect with others.
Chandran Lapel, Active Minds adviser and counselor, said they adopted the idea from another group they used to connect with in Canada.
“We were on a Zoom call discussing various student events, and this one came up as something particularly important,” she said. “The college we were speaking with came up with this idea after the COVID pandemic. They really wanted students to connect in person rather than over social media. We loved the idea of having students engage in other activities rather than sitting next to each other and scrolling on their phones.”
The event had multiple activities for students, including a puzzle, coloring affirmation coloring pages, Jenga, Connect Four and a wide selection of board games provided by the Board Game Club.
Lapel emphasized the importance of stepping away from devices and why Disconnect to Reconnect is so important.
“There is an epidemic of loneliness occurring within our society today,” she said. “Although people can connect through social media all over the world, research is showing that people are also feeling lonelier than ever. Sharing physical space doesn’t always mean that people feel truly connected. Engaging in something like a board game or puzzle with another person creates a more meaningful and deeper connection.”
Jan Marte said social media has a massive, often negative impact on everyone’s mental health.
“It’s wild to see kids as young as fourth graders with smartphones; they have all this power at their fingertips without understanding the long-term consequences or the stress it can cause,” he said.
“Social media tends to show only the extreme highs or the horrible lows,” he added, “leaving out the messy, beautiful reality of everyday life. Being away from that distorted reality, even for a few hours, significantly lowered my stress.”
Active Minds advisor and counselor Angie Ziesman Weiler said electronic devices affect people in many ways.
“Our devices can take up a lot of time and energy as well as affect our mood and motivation, and people compare themselves to others,” she said. “The goal of Disconnect to Reconnect is to take a break from that dependency and observe how it affects our mood and energy.”
Marte talked about connecting with people differently without devices.
“We spent the day working on a 500-piece puzzle and the conversation just flowed naturally from there. Without devices acting as a barrier, I felt like we were building genuine friendships, he said. “It was surprisingly easy to learn about everyone’s lives when there weren’t any notifications competing for our attention. We actually managed to finish the entire puzzle, though we discovered one single piece was missing at the very end, which honestly just gave us one more thing to talk about.”
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