Are you addicted to social media? A youth-led movement encourages more mindful use

Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online "constantly." That's despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health. That's according to a new report published earlier this month by the Pew Research Center. A new youth-led group is trying to change that. The Log Off Movement aims to help kids, teens and young people build healthy relationships with social media and online platforms. Emory University student Clara Wasserman is a co-founder and deputy director of Log Off, and she was recently named to the Forbes "30 Under 30" list. She spoke with GPB's Peter Biello.

Peter Biello: The Log Off Movement is about more than just logging off your devices. How do you get people to engage differently with social media?

Clara Wasserman: Log Off is more about redefining our relationship with technology. We're not anti-social media. We're not anti-technology. We just recognize that the way that we're currently using technology, it's not ... like we have the power; it's more technology is using us. And our health is not the primary concern of these companies that are making these products for us. How we get people to engage and change their behaviors is through our campaigns, engaging with our content online, consuming our podcasts, consuming our think pieces on our website, as well as engaging with our chapters, university chapters, high school chapters. [It's] all about being part of activities that take you off your phone and maybe have you focus more on human connection.

Peter Biello: One of the campaigns you're running now is called "Forks Up, Phones Down." Can you tell us about that one?

Clara Wasserman: That's our first big campaign. It's all about reprioritizing human connection while you're at the dinner table. So you see it all the time at restaurants, where people are looking at their phones or answering a text instead of just being in the moment with the person that they are sharing a meal with. And it's all about gently correcting that behavior in a way that makes people want to communicate and set their phones aside.

Peter Biello: Do you encourage a hard and fast limit on how many hours or even minutes people should be using social media, say, in a given week?

Clara Wasserman: There are so many more educated and more specialized researchers that are prioritizing that discussion. For us, it's more about really listening to your body and really listening to your mental health and what you feel when you are engaging on these platforms. A reason why we're not anti-social media, not anti-technology is because we recognize that you being online does not have the same impact on you as in you doing research for a project versus you scrolling on TikTok for hours and hours on end. So it's all about really distinguishing: Are you intentionally using the technology and the tools that you have to really do something new, do something, challenge yourself, learn and grow? Or is it just mindlessly scrolling, consuming content that honestly leaves you more anxious than how you began?

Peter Biello: What drew you to Log Off?

Clara Wasserman: So I actually was living in the Netherlands. I went to high school in the Netherlands, and during that time it was the COVID pandemic and we were all locked in our homes and I started feeling the mental impacts of just being hours and hours on end, with no direction, on social media, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram. And I just felt like it was having a negative impact on my mental health. And ironically, I found Emma —

Peter Biello: Emma is the co-founder and director of Log Off.

Clara Wasserman: Yes, Emma Lembke, yes. — via a YouTube channel called Jubilee. And she was having a discussion with other teens about how social media was impacting her and other people. And she talked about Log Off. And that really inspired me. And I thought, "This girl is so smart, I want to help her in her mission." And that's where I joined Log Off and we kind of remade it, made it something new.

Peter Biello: So how do you know the Log Off Movement is working?

Clara Wasserman: Right now we're in the process of growing. In the next couple of months, we're really gearing up and really pushing out our campaign as well as starting chapters in multiple universities. And that's really going to be our main way of gauging "Are we making an impact?" Already we have a chapter in Singapore, I believe, and it has evolved in a way that we never imagined it would evolve. We kind of always thought it would be more — not a TED Talk chapter where students kind of, not preach to other students like, "Hey, get off your phones," but more of a — more of a student-to-student support system. But it has evolved into ways where now there's ping pong tables ... in an international school in Singapore. And instead of kids being online while on their breaks, they're playing ping pong together. And that was all started by a girl with an initiative to really bring the Log Off mission to her school.