As societies increasingly navigate the promises and pressures of artificial intelligence, questions surrounding mental well-being, autonomy, and human creativity are gaining renewed urgency. While policy debates often focus on regulation, innovation, and ethical frameworks, less attention is paid to how different generations—particularly young people—perceive and experience life in an overdigitalized, contactless world.
The 1st essay competition, “The Right to an Analog Life and Mental Balance in the Age of an Overdigitalized, Contactless Society,” was launched to address this gap precisely. Organized and fully coordinated by Balkan Youth Cooperation (BYC) as a youth-led initiative and implemented within the framework of the Technology–Mind–Health event of the Global Academy for Future Governance (GAFG)and the consortium of its international partners, the competition offered a unique lens into how young people across educational levels and regions engage with the intersection of artificial intelligence and mental health.
Strong Engagement from Schools: A Signal of Early Awareness
One of the most striking outcomes of the competition was the exceptionally strong response from schools and secondary-level students. Teachers and students engaged with the topic not as a distant or abstract policy issue, but as a lived reality shaping everyday experiences of learning, communication, and emotional well-being.
This level of engagement suggests something critical: concerns about overdigitalization and mental balance are not limited to academic or expert circles. They are already present among adolescents who are growing up in environments shaped by constant connectivity, algorithmic mediation, and increasing dependence on digital platforms.
From a policy perspective, this finding is highly significant. It indicates that discussions on AI governance and mental health literacy must begin early, within educational systems, and not only at the level of higher education or professional training. The essays submitted by students demonstrated reflection, ethical sensitivity, and a strong awareness of the emotional consequences of digital saturation, often articulated through personal narratives and concrete examples rather than abstract theory.
A Broad Intellectual Spectrum: From Students to Emerging Researchers
Equally important was the diversity of academic and professional backgrounds among participants. Alongside school students, the competition attracted undergraduate and postgraduate students, early-career professionals, doctoral candidates, and young researchers.
This wide spectrum confirmed that the theme of AI and mental health cuts across disciplines, career stages, and epistemological approaches. Essays ranged from philosophically grounded reflections on autonomy and analogue life to policy-oriented analyses of digital governance to research-informed discussions drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and social sciences.
The coexistence of these perspectives within a single competition enriched the overall discourse. It revealed how the same technological phenomena—such as algorithmic decision-making, digital monitoring, or AI-assisted productivity—are understood differently depending on one’s educational background and life stage. For policymakers and institutions, this reinforces the need for inclusive, multi-level dialogue when addressing the societal impact of AI.
AI and Authorship: Observations from the Evaluation Process
A particularly insightful dimension of the competition emerged during the evaluation of the essays themselves: the varied and nuanced ways in which participants engaged with AI as a writing tool.
In several submissions—particularly from higher education participants—AI tools appeared to have been used during the writing process. However, in many of these cases, the use of AI resulted in texts that lacked a clear personal voice, emotional depth, or stylistic coherence. While technically polished, such essays often struggled to convey the individuality and lived perspective of the author.
This observation is important not as a critique, but as a policy-relevant insight. It highlights a central tension in AI-assisted writing: when technology begins to substitute rather than support human expression, the outcome may be efficient but emotionally flattened. In discussions on AI literacy, this distinction—between augmentation and replacement—deserves far greater attention.
At the same time, a highly encouraging finding emerged, particularly from school-level submissions. In many of these essays, no detectable use of AI tools was identified at all. These texts were often deeply personal, reflective, and contextually grounded, demonstrating that young people are fully capable of articulating complex ideas without technological substitution.
Generation Can Benefit from Technology Without Being Replaced
Taken together, these findings offer a cautiously optimistic conclusion. The competition suggests that the younger generation does not necessarily approach AI as a shortcut or replacement for human creativity. Instead, many young writers appear capable of engaging with technology critically, using it as a support where appropriate, while preserving their own voice, agency, and emotional authenticity.
This has direct implications for both education and policy. Rather than framing AI in binary terms—as either a threat or a solution—there is a need to cultivate ethical, reflective, and creative AI literacy, particularly among young people. The goal should not be to prevent the use of AI tools but to ensure that such tools enhance rather than erode human expression and mental balance.
Youth-Led Coordination and Global Reach
The idea for the Essay Competition originated from the Global Academy for Future Governance (GAFG)on an initiative from prof. BirgittaDresp-Langley and Dr.Katka Zarychta,which, recognizing the importance of youth participation in discussions on artificial intelligence and mental health, invited Balkan Youth Cooperation (BYC) to undertake its implementation. Within this framework, BYC assumed responsibility for the full operational coordination of the competition, including outreach and promotion, communication with schools, universities, and participants, as well as the management and early evaluation of submitted essays.
The evaluation process was conducted by a panel of scientists and experts working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, mental health, and social sciences, established on the initiative of the GAFG, and based on a clearly defined and transparent evaluation framework jointly developed by the Global Academy for Future Governance and Balkan Youth Cooperation, ensuring a balanced assessment of relevance, originality, argumentation, language quality, and impact potential.
This collaboration was based on a clear division of roles. GAFG provided the institutional framework and the broader policy environment of the Technology–Mind–Health event, while BYC acted as the main implementing body of the Essay Competition, drawing on its youth-led character and existing networks.
As expected, the Greek and, more broadly, the European audience was more closely connected to the organizing youth network, which was reflected in a higher number of submissions from Europe. This proximity—geographical, organizational, and linguistic—played a significant role in participant engagement. At the same time, conscious efforts were made, within a limited timeframe, to extend the reach of the call beyond established networks and towards a more global audience.
These efforts resulted in participation from a wide range of regions, including Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Philippines, India, and Singapore, demonstrating the global relevance of the competition’s theme despite geographic constraints. This international dimension was also reflected in the final results of the competition, with the top five positions awarded to participants from Greece, Italy, the Philippines, India, and Singapore(while the latest, miss Ong, is just 11 years old).
The experience gained through this first edition has provided valuable insights for future planning. Preparatory work has already begun for the next essay competition, with a strengthened and more strategically designed international dissemination and outreach plan, aiming to ensure broader geographical balance and participation from all regions of the world.
Reflections for Future Governance
The 1st essay competition demonstrated that discussions on AI and mental health must be intergenerational, interdisciplinary, and inclusive. The strong participation of school students signals early awareness and concern. The engagement of doctoral candidates and young researchers confirms academic and policy relevance. The varied use of AI in writing offers concrete insights into how technology is already reshaping cognition, creativity, and self-expression.
Most importantly, the competition reaffirmed that young people are not passive recipients of technological change. They are active interpreters, critics, and potential shapers of future digital governance—provided they are given meaningful platforms to contribute.
Concluding Thoughts
As artificial intelligence continues to redefine social, educational, and professional landscapes, safeguarding mental balance and the right to an analogue life will remain a central policy challenge. The experiences and insights gathered through this youth-led essay competition illustrate both the risks of overdigitalization and the resilience of human creativity.
By listening to youth voices across age groups and academic levels, institutions can better understand how to design policies that support mental well-being while embracing responsible technological innovation. In this sense, the competition was not only an academic exercise but also a reflection of the future governance conversations that urgently need to take place.
Theodora Vounidi is a PhD candidate in the Department of Humanities at Democritus University of Thrace and co-founder and youth worker at the NGO Balkan Youth Cooperation. She has worked across diverse fields of civil society, within European Union institutions, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. Her interests include civic engagement and the training of young people in research methodology in the humanities.
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