Technology was once perceived as a tool. Today, it presents a challenge of addiction to young adults and teens that no longer perceive a tool but an object they’ve grown up on. | Photo taken by Kristen Brewer.
Story by Kristen Brewer
TRACK:
Social media was once considered a tool connecting teens and young adults to their friends around the world. But today the roles have been reversed where teens and young adults are now considered the tool for social media companies inspiring addiction by keeping their attention on the screen.
KEEGAN LEE, CO-AUTHOR OF 60 DAYS OF DISCONNECT
Social Media is not going away, technology is going to continue to advance, and we have to make an effort to balance our online lives with our physical life.
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Keegan Lee is not only a UNC first-year but also co-author of 60 Days of Disconnect. Through the pandemic when many people looked to social media as a lifeline, Lee challenged herself to seek connection within.
KEEGAN LEE, CO-AUTHOR OF 60 DAYS OF DISCONNECT
I wasn’t getting the type of raw and real human connection that we as humans desire.
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Lee’s 60 days without social media led to many insights made by herself and her co-author, one being that this disconnect resembled more of a withdrawal.
BILAL GHANDOUR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
From the first day where she disconnected to the seventh and the tenth and the twentieth, followed the same cycle of any type of addiction.
STAND UP
Both Lee and Ghandour recall a pivotal moment in Lee’s journal when she sat down to dinner with her family. Although Lee had already begun to work towards her 60 days without social media, she continued to check her phone unconsciously throughout dinner until her father alerted her that this had become an unconscious addiction to acknowledge notifications.
KEEGAN LEE, CO-AUTHOR OF 60 DAYS OF DISCONNECT
These devices are so powerful that they can fracture our attention without ever even triggering our awareness
BILAL GHANDOUR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
It always sort of talks to you, it always lights up. So that kind of repetitive action conditions the brain to see things when they’re not there.
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But some teens like Kaitlyn Colon are waking up to the effects of social media.
KAITLYN COLON, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
I saw other people taking breaks from social media because they were also inspired by Keegan and so I was like if they can do it I can do it. And one of the things that like really spurred it for me was that I went on Spring Break and I spent 35 hours on TikTok on that week.
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Colon gave up social media for a week and spoke to the immediate mental health benefits she felt.
KAITLYN COLON, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
When you look up from your screen, you see what’s around you and you really connect with the people around you.
BILAL GHANDOUR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY
Nothing will ever replace, no matter how technology advances, the power of a physical connection and a human connection.
TRACK
There’s a new movement beginning. Those reaching out for true connection and leaving the blue light behind. I’m Kristen Brewer Reporting.
