Using stories and anecdotes to educate young people

One of the most effective ways to engage young people is by sharing stories. Our brains often don’t distinguish between fiction and reality, and as a result, we often immerse ourselves in stories as if we were actually part of them. Stories make us experience information, as opposed to just consuming it, and can be an excellent method of conveying important information in a way that resonates for young people (and is often also less confronting for them).

Try focusing your story into 3 x parts:

1. Talk about the problem or issue
2. Explain the journey (the highs and lows)
3. Explain what the solution was

Example

The Problem: I knew a girl with autism when I was younger. She was getting bullied at school and was feeling really down. She often used gaming to escape, and created this avatar that was everything she thought she wasn’t. The avatar was a top sports player, popular with the boys and super smart. She said to her online friends that she would be going overseas to a US University when she graduated as she won a basketball scholarship. The problem was that the more time this girl spent online, the more she started to only want to “be” this avatar, rather than herself. Over time, she lost interest in her real life friends, and escaped into the game more and more. It became really unhealthy but she didn’t see what was happening to her. Her friends and family did though.

Journey: While she didn’t see it as an issue at first, this girl became more and more wrapped up in the game and less in her real life. Her true friends got really sad that she didn’t want to see them much anymore, and eventually stopped contacting her. She had fights with her family, but at the time didn’t realise they were just trying to help her. Once she realised she was spending too much time online, and pretending to be someone else, she felt even worse about herself. The situation kept going on because the worse she felt about herself, the more she wanted to escape into the game to forget about the situation.

Solution: Eventually the girl listened to her mum as she knew her mum understood what gaming was like (because they’d gamed together a few times) and how you can get a bit carried away with it. It took some time, but with the help of a psychologist she started to see all the good parts of herself, and was proud of the person she was. She still chose to game occasionally (and her parents were cool with that), but that experience really taught her about how important it is to stay balanced, and be ok with the skin you’re in.