DUB will take another deep dive, and readers will choose the topic

DUB ran a pilot of this project last year. The winning question was “To what extent can citizens be compelled to act sustainably?” We took a deep dive into the dilemma between the right to autonomy and the struggle against climate change. 

This year, we are taking the project further, with three new questions:
- How can young people stay hopeful about the future?
- How can we change our relationship with our phones?
- Is freedom of speech under threat?

To participate, all you have to do is answer a short questionnaire. It takes about five minutes to fill it in.

Question #1: How can young people stay hopeful about the future?

Pessimism is on the rise in the Netherlands, and the growth of this negativity is more pronounced among the highly educated. People were asked to react to the statement “The future looks hopeful” in a 2018 survey by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). 23 percent of people aged 15 and above with a bachelor’s degree from a university or university of applied sciences disagreed with the statement. In 2021, that share had risen to 37 percent. 

Young adults experienced the sharpest decline in happiness and life satisfaction in just three years, although the overall Dutch population remained generally satisfied. Between 2019 and 2022, their life satisfaction fell from 86 to 76 percent. 

The coronavirus pandemic is among the reasons for this pessimism, but it isn’t alone. Rising prices and the housing crisis are important factors, too. Moving out of one’s parents’ is harder for this generation than it was for previous ones. Buying a home, a symbol of successful adulthood to many, has become increasingly out of reach. Climate change, geopolitical tensions, and loneliness are also among the factors contributing to young people seeing the glass as half-empty rather than half-full.

“In a world where every headline feels like a crisis, it’s no wonder so many of us feel this way,” a student at Groningen University recently wrote. 

Although this state of affairs is, indeed, understandable, it is deeply concerning. After all, hope is a crucial predictor of well-being and mental health. 

So, how can young people stay hopeful about the future? The self-help section at the bookstore is full of tips, and so is social media. But DUB wants to dive much deeper: with the help of UU’s philosophers, psychologists, historians, social scientists, and activists, among others, we will explore the decline and how we can get our hopes back. 

Want to vote for this topic? You can do so in our form.

Question #2: How can we change our relationship with our smartphones?

Smartphones are an extremely handy invention. With just a single device that fits in your pocket, you can do a bunch of different things: make phone calls, send text messages, take pictures, stay up to date with friends and celebrities on social media, follow the news, look for information, look for a job, access information from your university, listen to podcasts, code with AI... The list goes on and on. These activities used to require a lot of gadgets and a lot of people. Now, all you have to do is stare at a screen, by yourself — or so it seems.

Everything has pros and cons, and the downsides of this technology are becoming apparent. On average, people aged 15-21 in the Netherlands spend 5.5 hours on their phones each day. A significant chunk of this time is spent on social media. That’s according to a survey by Mediahuis, in which 37 percent of respondents aged 22-28 also stated that social media sometimes makes them feel sad, insecure or depressed.

The best-seller Anxious Generation, by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, argues that a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and mental health problems among young people is largely driven by the rapid shift to a phone-based childhood and adolescence.

Meanwhile, a young woman in California is suing Meta and Google for harming her mental health in a landmark trial. She argues that Instagram and YouTube are addictive, exploiting dopamine release mechanisms. 

These discussions are prompting several countries to advance legislation restricting or forbidding social media for teens. Australia was the first. Here in the Netherlands, the measure appears in the coalition agreement.

The question actually divides researchers. “Although it is debatable whether social media is addictive, it is certainly designed to be highly compelling, which may become a compulsion,” says an article published by Nature. Either way, 29 percent of young respondents in the Mediahuis survey said they are considering leaving social media altogether. 

While some people want to change their relationship with their phones to protect their mental health, others are doing so for political reasons, as they are concerned about surveillance, disinformation, algorithms that favour certain ideologies over others, the amplification of toxic or discriminatory discourses, and platforms that interfere in elections. Through this lens, a healthier relationship with our phones also means a healthier relationship with each other as a society.

If you choose this question, DUB will talk with UU students and scientists to explore ways we can have a healthier relationship with our phones, both individually and collectively.

Want to vote for this topic? You can do so in our form.

Question #3: Is freedom of speech under threat?

“We can’t say anything anymore!” You might have heard a family member say this at Christmas dinner. But the idea has been very present in politics as well.

“We must defend free speech against censorship and ideological control,” the Dutch far-right politician Thierry Baudet said recently. “I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America,” US President Donald Trump said in a speech to Congress. Meanwhile, academics are calling his measures a form of censorship – Annelien De Dijn’s recent op-ed on DUB is an example.

Although this discussion seems as contemporary as can be, debates about free speech in Western societies date back to classical Athens, where Socrates was executed for “corrupting the youth”. Since then, ideas about what one may or may not say in public have changed according to the time and place, with some legal systems being more restrictive than others.

If you choose the third question, DUB will take a deep dive into this discussion, consulting UU’s legal scholars, historians and others to determine whether freedom of speech is being undermined. If it is, to what extent? And how exactly is that happening? If it isn’t, why do people resonate with politicians who say that it is? Last but definitely not least, what can UU students and staff do to help protect freedom of speech in the Netherlands and their countries of origin?

Want to vote for this topic? You can do so in our form.

You can answer the questionnaire until April 4. In our form, you can also suggest angles, formats and people to interview. DUB will announce the winning topic in mid-April and start publishing the Deep Dive content in May.