About Room to Rest


Teenagers in Singapore live deeply connected lives. For many young people, phones, social media, and AI aren't just about distraction or entertainment. They can also be ways to cope with stress, loneliness, or simply the need for a break.

But not every kind of digital downtime is actually restful. Scrolling, gaming, messaging, or chatting with AI can sometimes leave young people feeling more drained, more hooked, or more lonely. Most advice about screens and wellbeing focuses on cutting down screen time, setting rules at home, or staying safe online. These things matter, but they usually start from what adults are worried about — not what young people themselves actually think or what they are motivated by. And so we want to ask simpler but equally important questions: What are teens really looking for when they pick up their phones? What kinds of rest, comfort, escape, or connection are they finding in those moments?

That's why this program starts with understanding, not fixing. We see teenagers not as problems to be solved, but as the experts on their own digital lives. Instead of asking how young people can use technology less, we ask how they might find — and redesign — better ways to rest in a digital world.

The programme has been funded by The Centre for Advanced Technologies in Online Safety (CATOS) and has been reviewed and approved by the NUS Institutional Review Board (IRB).
NUS-IRB Reference Code:
NUS-IRB-2026-558