A New Student Movement Wants You to Log Off
Two years ago a college sophomore started "the Log Off movement." This week the New York Times explored its progress — starting with how their mission's been affected by negative news stories about social media: "The first article I read that really launched me into it was Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation. I found study after study showing the possible correlation between increased rates of anxiety, suicide rates and eating disorders tracking alongside increased rates of usage... The most powerful thing to me was not the studies. It was the fact that personal stories were not being told and there was not an epicenter where people could come together and say: "Here's my personal experience." "Here's how I was harmed." "These were the accounts that made me feel worse about myself." I knew that was necessary. The genie's out of the bottle. As members of Gen Z, we understand that there are positive attributes and there are negative attributes to social media, but right now, in its current usage, it can be really harmful. Q: How does the Log Off Movement address these issues? Through our podcast, a leadership council, an educational curriculum on how to use online spaces safely and blogs, we are discussing ways we can move forward with technology and allow it to become a tool again rather than a controller. What we are asking for teens to do is to be comfortable talking about their experiences so that we can educate legislators to understand a Gen Z perspective, what we need from technology, what privacy concerns we're having, what mental health concerns we're having. We have an advocacy initiative through Tech[nically] Politics, which pushes for laws that help ensure teens have a safe online experience, specifically the California Age Appropriate Design Code Bill.... Q: How have you adjusted your own relationship to social media? What methods have worked? Whenever I go through a stressful period with exams, I delete Instagram. I know that in periods of stress, I'm going to lean towards mindlessly using it as a form of coping. Another thing that's worked for me is Grayscale, which makes the phone appear only in black and white. I always suggest Screentime Genie, which provides solutions on how to limit screen time. I use Habit Lab for Chrome, which helps you reduce your time online. It creates a level of friction between you and addictive technology. One app they still enjoy is BeReal (which notifies you and your friends to take an unstaged picture of what you're genuinely doing at one randomly-chosen moment each day). But the group's founder still remembers the "horrific loop" of using social media apps six hours a day (starting with Instagram at the age of 12) — and "feeling as though I could not stop scrolling because it has this weird power over me..." One teenager who'd spent six hours a day on social media later shared their observation that logging off improved their vision — but also made the world more clear mentally. The group's founder says the ultimate hope is their project "results in a kind of pivot prioritizing the well-being of users in these online environments."
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