Anouk Shin ‘26
Gray Colloquium has been a distinctly St. Mark’s event for many years, each year bringing a new topic for speakers to discuss. This year’s first was Dino Ambrosi, a digital wellness speaker, who stood behind the microphone and gave a distinct presentation that captured the engagement of many students.
Ambrosi’s talk was on the harms of technology on lives. Although it was a topic high school students have been lectured on many times, from Ambrosi, it felt different. “He was more of an engaging speaker,” says Erin Rasmussen ‘23, “especially compared to the speakers we had before.” Other students agreed that Ambrosi’s speech was helpful and outstanding compared to past speakers, and attributed this memorableness to his experience working with high school students.
In particular, the diagram Ambrosi presented during his speech, depicting the remaining weeks in a lifetime and how many of those weeks would be spent on social media, seemed to have left a striking impression on many students. Rasmussen ‘23 continues, “My favorite part of the talk was the dots on the screen that showed how much of our lives were going to be spent on our phones. I think that really puts it into perspective.” Howie Shi ‘26 adds that he was “very surprised” by what the diagram showed, and Yolanda Zhou ‘23 states that it prompted her to be “more aware of [her] screentime.”
Although informative and engaging, the largest part of Dino Ambrosi’s speech was the impact it had on the St. Mark’s community. Many students downloaded Clear Space, the app Ambrosi recommended in his presentation, and found it effective: “I downloaded the app that [Ambrosi] talked about, Clear Space. I use it on my Instagram, and my Instagram usage went down, like, a lot. I barely even use it anymore. I don’t scroll either,” says Seoyeon Kim ‘26. Zhou speaks of a similar experience, stating, “I’ve downloaded [Clear Space] and I’ve been using it. It’s been pretty helpful.”
Furthermore, the impact of Ambrosi’s speech went beyond students. The voluntary “No Cellphone Wednesday” was inspired by his speech, and was implemented almost immediately after the talk. It encouraged St. Markers to experience a school day with no screen time.
Dino Ambrosi set the Gray Colloquium series off to a great start this year. The messages of his talk and the positive impacts he made on St. Mark’s will resonate with many students, reminding us to not have the remaining weeks of our lives snatched away by mindless scrolling.