Latest news with #GabrielaNguyen
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Teens Are Practicing ‘Appstinence' — & It Reveals How They Really Feel About Their Phones
Who better to encourage teens to take a break from their phones than a fellow Gen Z? Parents can attempt to limit their kids' screen time all they want, but it likely won't stick unless it's their idea. That's why this new 'appstinence' trend is so encouraging. A 24-year-old Harvard grad student started this movement to help people detach from constant phone use, and it's gaining favor among teens. Appstinence was founded by Gabriela Nguyen, who started a club about it at her Ivy League school for other students who felt they were addicted to social media, per Fast Company. More from SheKnows It's Not Just About Looks: Your Teen's Skincare Obsession Might Be More Emotional Than You Think 'Forget screen time controls. Algorithm hacking. Digital detoxes. What about Option E: None of the above?' states her website. The movement is simple: taking a break from apps altogether. According to Nguyen's website, appstinence means 'refraining from having personal social media accounts and instead using direct-line communication like phone calls and texts.' You know, like what cell phones were originally built for. Nguyen doesn't want a limit — she wants a complete departure from smart phone culture altogether. It revolves around a 5D method: Decrease, Deactivate, Delete, Downgrade, & Depart. If your teen wants to follow this method (or you do, because let's be honest, parents might need a break from smartphones too), then start slowly. Start by letting your close friends and family members know you are experimenting with moving offline and making sure you have their phone numbers to communicate over text or call instead. This is also a good time to write down your goals/fears/feelings about this process. Decrease: delete apps from your phone and only access them through the browser on your laptop. It helps to slowly lower the amount of time you are on the apps instead of quitting cold turkey. After a few weeks, it's time to make a more permanent move — deactivate your accounts social media accounts like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Just do one account at a time, slowly relying on apps less. After 30 days, deactivated accounts will automatically be deleted. The idea is that by this time you will have spent so much focus cultivating offline connections, real self-care activities, and learning how to live more slowly that it will be a painless transition. Once your app has been permanently deleted, go through the steps again and again until all your social media accounts have been deleted. You may need to set a regular schedule or reminder to call loved ones and schedule in-person meetups. It's also a good time to try out new hobbies and activities that you'll have time for now that you aren't doomscrolling. Downgrade and depart are the last two steps in the appstinence method. This refers to getting a transition device that's a phone that is in-between a smartphone and a flip phone that will allow you to download some necessary apps (like Uber, banking, etc.) that primarily lives in your bag unused, and a flip phone that you will use the majority of the time to connect with others. Depart can be anywhere from several weeks to over a year after you began your appstinence journey. This is a chance to reflect on why you enjoy moving offline and existing in the real world instead. You can sign up for personalized guidance to achieve the appstinence lifestyle, where you will get a lifestyle plan, personal goals, follow up phone calls, and more coaching. When SheKnows talked to New York City teens in February about their screen use, 17-year-old Annie told us that she's 'embarrassed' about the number of hours she spends on her screen: 'I wanna cut it down … I could be doing better things. It's not good for me.' Annabella, 16, told us, 'My friends are on it [their phones], I feel like I couldn't get off it or certain apps, I don't know — I'm just, like, addicted.' Research backs this up. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey of US teens ages 13-17 found that 19% of teen girls use TikTok 'almost constantly,' and 19% of teen boys say the same about YouTube. Despite all this social connection, teens are lonelier than ever. Richard Ramos, author, speaker, and founder of Parents on a Mission, previously told SheKnows that teens are 'caught in a cycle of superficial interaction' online that doesn't fulfill 'their deeper need for belonging.' 'Friendship used to be about shared experiences, you know, the stuff like riding bikes together, staying up late talking, going out for a soda, bowling and working through problems face-to-face or on the phone,' Ramos told us. Now friendships often exist as online exchanges only. 'As a result, many teens may struggle with deeper emotional bonds which can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and a sense of isolation — but feel confused as they know a lot of people, but not in real life.' Certain apps have introduced ways to help teens limit their screen time use, like TikTok, which is launching an in-app meditation guide that is mandatory for those under 18 after 10 p.m. Things like this can help, but sometimes, quitting social media altogether might be the best option for teens. 'It's not obvious to us. It's a lot of either unknown or a lot of never lived without it,' Nguyen told Harvard about why she started the appstinence movement to help young people learn how to quit social media. 'And so that's why in addiction research abstention plays such a big role because when you remove the stimulus it gives you a lot to learn about how much control it had over you.' 'It's not a utopian fantasy of like, 'Oh, if only I could run out into the woods and leave all my technology behind and get off social media and reinvent myself,'' she added. 'It's something that people are actually doing.'Best of SheKnows 19 Celebrity Parents With Trans & Nonbinary Kids 20 of Serena Williams' Most Adorable Motherhood Moments 30+ Baby Names With Ivy League Vibes — No Degree Required
Fast Company
22-05-2025
- Fast Company
Should you practice Appstinence? Gen Z and Gen Alpha are embracing this Harvard student movement
' APPstinence,' which as you may have guessed, refers to abstaining from using your apps, is a movement encouraging people to get off social media and become less attached to their smartphones. It was founded by Harvard graduate student Gabriela Nguyen. The 24-year-old, who grew up in the center of Big Tech in Silicon Valley, realized she was addicted to both social media and her phone, probably from an early age, so she decided to something about it and started a club at the Ivy League school for her fellow students, along with the website APPstinence. Aimed at her Gen Z and Gen Alpha peers — although it applies to everyone who feels they have an unhealthy relationship with tech (which is basically all of us, right?) — APPstinence forgoes popular quick fixes like screen time controls, algorithm hacking, or digital detoxes, and offers something much more radical: a five-step method (which sounds Alcohol Anonymous' 12-step program) to free yourself once-and-for-all from the chains of technology addiction. Appstinence's 5-steps method can be summed up in just as many words: Decrease, Deactivate, Delete, Downgrade, and Depart. The point of this process is to reduce the sources of stimulus gradually. The idea isn't to be completely phone-free, but to eventually be able, over time, to downgrade to some type of dumb-ish phone without social accounts. (Nguyen herself has three dumb phones, including the Light Phone.) According to her, people, and Gen Z specifically, should know they have the choice to opt out of social media. How does the process work? Sure, quitting cold turkey is hard. (Am I the only person who regularly deletes Instagram off my phone, only to reload it at 1:00 a.m in a panic?) Instead, Nguyen's 5D Method decrease s your usage incrementally, by deactivating your social media accounts one-by-one, which automatically deletes your apps 30 days later, allowing you to downgrade your phone, and finally depart from the digital world. Interested in trying it out? Here's a full breakdown of the steps. Before you start: Make a list of family and friends you are in regular contact with, and who are important for you. Let each know, one-by-one, you'll be moving offline and to reach you by text or phone instead. Step #1, Decrease: Delete all of the apps from your smartphone, and only access them through the browser on your laptop. Unfollow non-essential accounts and turn off non-essential notifications. After a few weeks, you can move to the next step. Step #2, Deactivate: Social media apps have a 30-day deactivation period before your account is deleted. Start by deactivating the app you feel you use the least. Step #3, Delete: As your accounts automatically delete in 30 days, spend this time strengthening your connections in the real world, for example, exercising, calling your relatives, hanging out with friends, or reading. Refer to your list from before you started. Set a regular schedule to call loved ones (or text, if necessary) and propose a time to hang out in person. Doing this regularly will help you stay connected with the people that matter, and more intimately so. If you panic during this withdrawal stage, re-activate, it's not a race. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you've deleted the last app. Step #4, Downgrade: Get a 'transition device' like a low-fi smart phone with limited functionality, something cheap that will allow you to access the basic apps you need (banking, Double Factor Authentication for students, QR codes) and keep it shut off in your bag on outings when you may need it. Also get a flip phone, which you should use most of the time.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Preferring to live life offline, these young people are practicing 'appstinence'
Gabriela Nguyen was born and raised in Silicon Valley, the birthplace of social media. Her father was wary of his daughter living a plugged-in life and attempted to shield her from technology — but the pull of apps like Instagram and Snapchat was simply too strong. By the time she was in high school, Nguyen was 'chronically online.' That meant spending hours scrolling, checking in on what everyone around her was doing and taking an often too-critical eye to her own posts. Every time a new feature was introduced, such as Instagram Stories in 2016, Nguyen felt pressure to keep up. It was just what 'kids these days' did. Yet Nguyen had a gnawing sense that spending so much time on these apps was zapping her time and energy. By 14, she started to wonder: Could there be a life without social media? Leaving her online life behind wasn't a quick or easy process. In fact, it took almost a decade after that initial thought to call it quits. She wanted to be a part of the online world most of her friends were living in, even as creating 'different versions' of herself on an ever-expanding array of platforms was growing exhausting. But now, at 23, she has finally left social media for good — and plans never to return. Nguyen, a graduate student at Harvard, not only is off of apps, but also downgraded her phone from a smartphone to a dumb one. 'I have a lot of times during the day where I have no digital stimulus — I just kind of sit and think,' she says. Nguyen felt like she was holding on to 'the world's best secret' by living an unconnected life. 'I needed to give some kind of personification, some kind of life to this idea and ... share it with other people,' she explains. With that, 'appstinence' was born. Appstinence, a play on abstinence, means forgoing social media entirely and instead focusing on direct-line communication, such as phone calls and texts. She formalized the concept when she began studying education policy and later founded a Gen Z-led organization by the same name. Twice a month, the group meets to discuss how to reduce the impact of digital life on the real world. Nguyen even created a guide called the 5D method — which stands for decrease, deactivate, delete, downgrade and depart — to help other people mend their relationships with social media. According to 2024 data from the Harris Poll, about half of adult Gen Z social media users spend two to four hours a day on social media, while 60% spend at least four hours, and 22% spend seven or more hours daily. But like Nguyen, more members of Gen Z are realizing that it simply doesn't serve them. Judy Liu, a 25-year-old instructional designer in New York City, says she connected with Nguyen and the organization Appstinence last year through Fairplay's Screen Time Action Network, a group focused on reducing screen time and promoting healthier digital habits. Liu, who got her first smartphone at 10, began weaning herself off social media when she was 18: first by deleting Snapchat and then the following year Instagram. In 2022, she deleted her Facebook account. Liu loved social media. As a 'painfully shy' teen, she used things like friend requests and likes to replace interactions she wasn't comfortable having. But eventually, Liu says, her confidence took a hit: 'I paid attention to things like, 'Oh, what's my ratio between the number of people that I'm following and people that are following me?' And I was noticing that I was comparing myself to other people, whether that was in successes or in the way that my body looked,' she recalls. After several hours of scrolling, she'd experience heightened levels of anxiety. When she finally scaled back on social media — before deleting it entirely, save for LinkedIn for professional connections — she felt 'more at peace and more present.' 'It's not like social media is the source of all my problems, and now that I'm rid of them, my life is sunshine and rainbows all the time. ... It just gave me the opportunity to focus on what the actual problems are and give them the attention and the love that is necessary,' she says. 'Social media distracted me from them.' And younger members of Gen Z feel the same, such as 16-year-old high school junior Tommy Alfano of Dorset, Vt. He chose to follow the 5D method in January after connecting with Nguyen through his work with Vermont Phone-Free Schools Coalition. Alfano says that before going app-free, social media was his 'go-to' to 'decompress or just kill time.' When Meta introduced Reels, he found himself 'scrolling endlessly,' something that became a habit he 'couldn't shake' that was 'taking a toll' on his well-being. The biggest perk of going app-free? Being present, Alfano says, and no longer feeling stuck in the cycle of 'mindless scrolling' or like he has to 'keep up with everyone else's highlights reel.' While he did initially experience 'withdrawal,' now he connects with friends over 'real conversations instead of whatever is trending online.' He's now spending more time outdoors and even working in his free time with Snapchat on its Council for Digital Well-Being — a group of 18 teens who share their experiences to 'shape healthy online spaces.' 'I didn't realize how much time Reels took up until I had all this extra time to actually enjoy things,' Alfano says. There's a reason people like Nguyen, Liu and Alfano felt like social media was taking more than it was giving. The National Center for Health Research linked social media use among teens and young adults to rising levels of anxiety and depression. It may even make us more irritable, per research from January 2025. Meanwhile, a 2019 study found the more time we spend in digital spaces, the less happy we are overall. Other research saw that time on social media can lead to a negative body image and even eating disorders. 'It's important to remember that content doesn't have to be inherently negative to elicit negative emotions,' Maureen Coyle, an assistant professor of psychology at Widener University, tells Yahoo Life. 'For example, posts displaying lavish lifestyles and wealth or idealized physical appearances can evoke feelings of inadequacy or self-doubt.' Social media is also addictive. Psychologist Cameron Sepah, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life that this is due to 'dopaminergic loops of reinforcement.' This means that social media platforms are designed to trigger the release of dopamine, the brain's 'pleasure hormone,' making us feel good when we engage with content. 'Likes, comments and notifications are intermittent rewards, much like gambling,' he says. And continuous stimulation 'shortens attention span, raises anxiety levels and causes compulsive scrolling.' The first step to seeing if appstinence is for you is to assess how you feel after spending time online. 'Consider keeping a journal to track your emotions before, during and after using social media,' Coyle says. 'If you notice that your mood declines after spending time online, that's a strong indicator that your social media use may be harmful.' Reflecting on your 'motivation' for using social media is important. 'Are you using it to pass the time, learn something new, connect with others or to avoid someone or something? If your primary motivation is avoidance, that may be a red flag,' she says. If you find that you're not getting much benefit from spending time on social media, then Nguyen's 5D method offers a gradual approach to stepping away. If you want to follow the 5D plan, here are the steps Nguyen recommends taking to achieve a social-media-free life. Inform close friends and family about your decision to go offline and ask them to reach you via text or phone. Decrease use by removing social media apps from your phone and accessing them only via browser. Unfollow unnecessary accounts and disable notifications. Deactivate accounts one at a time, starting with the least-used. Deactivation lasts 30 days before automatic deletion. Don't be discouraged if you struggle: These apps are made to be addictive. Focus on real-world connections and self-care during the 30-day deactivation period. Repeat the process for all accounts until you are fully offline. Nguyen believes that appstinence is a better alternative to moderate use, due to the constant changes that social media apps are making to keep you coming back. But Sepah says that for most people, 'scaling down, rather than cold turkey, is a more realistic solution.' 'Cold turkey may be a possibility for extreme digital addiction, but controlled use — such as limiting time, unfollowing toxic accounts or scheduling 'phone-free hours' — may be as helpful in reducing harm,' he says. Here are some tips on how to scale back social media use: Set your phone down away from your bed at night (get a real alarm clock!) to stop nighttime scrolling that can disrupt your sleep. Disable push notifications that bring you back to an app and distract you during the day. Or, consider going on Do Not Disturb — you can set your phone to still get notifications from important contacts. Schedule social media breaks — label certain times of the day, like your mornings, phone-free. Set a 'no phone at the table' rule so you can eat meals without scrolling. Delete one social media app so you're checking your phone less frequently. Next time you go to DM a friend, shoot them a text instead — or, better yet, make it a phone call.
