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Cutting out social media. Setting timers that lock out apps. Using a flip phone, a physical map or taking notes with pen and paper. Some young Canadians are becoming more intentional with their technology use and opting for digital minimalism — paring down all-encompassing devices like smartphones — of their own volition.
Gen Z, the demographic stretching from mid-teenagers to not quite 30-year-olds, have grown up in a web-focused world being “inundated — like a fire hose — with social media: the constant connectedness, the social pressures of posting and sharing and answering right away,” said neuroscience researcher Emma Duerden, an associate professor in the faculty of education at Western University in London, Ont.
Our brains are not designed to be connected to the internet at all times, she explained, and many young people feel “digital exhaustion” from being online both at school — where students can start using web-connected laptops in Gr. 3 — as well at home.
A Statistics Canada longitudinal study released in March found that young people who met the guidelines for screen time (less than two hours daily for those under 17 and less than three hours daily for people 18 and over) were more likely to report better well-being, including mental health and stress levels, than those who logged an excess of screen time.
More devices, less screen time. Teens and young people are turning to digital minimalism to cut back on the time they spend scrolling.
“A lot of teens today are trying to just cut down on constant use,” Duerden said. “They’re aware of how much time they’re spending online [and] the potential harmful effects. “
CBC News spoke with students choosing to be more mindful of their screen time, challenges they’re navigating and the impact this behaviour change is having.
Priscilla Ojomu, 24
A volunteer working with teens whenever she’s back home in Alberta, law student Priscilla Ojomu says the lack of social media apps on her cell phone is a frequent conversation starter with Gen Alpha kids.
She’s open with them about about deleting Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok early in the COVID-19 pandemic when school and social interactions moved online. Too much time spent doomscrolling hurt her mental health, but at the same time, she says she wanted to be more productive and intentional with valuable connections she was making virtually.
Since then, Ojomu has tested new apps, but she’ll drop any that eat up her time. She’s also become a fan of tech-use audits, since seeing how long you’re actually spending or how often you pick up your phone is eye-opening.
“Often people ask, ‘How do you balance everything? How do you balance law school, volunteering, extracurriculars, life?'” Ojomu said from Leicester, U.K., where she’s completing legal studies.
“There’s a lot more you can do when you’re not on social media…. You actually enjoy life.”
Gavin MacNeil, 19
In high school, Gavin MacNeil constantly checked messages, social posts and videos on his smartphone — “an artificial world where all of these apps… steal your time,” he said. Though he tried deleting apps, he says he found himself downloading them anew or racking up time on others.
Getting a flip phone proved the perfect solution and has become a core part of his identity for more than two years now. “People can’t even picture a world when I used to have an iPhone,” he said from Ottawa.
Naturally, there were initial hurdles: switching to calling versus direct-messaging friends, for instance, or looking up directions and bus routes before venturing out.
However, he says he’s feeling calmer, happier and present in every moment. He calls his new problem-solving and navigation skills “superpowers,” and says he’s excited to build them further when he moves to Toronto to study graphic design this fall.
Ditching his smartphone was “the best decision of my life and I recommend it to everyone,” MacNeil said. “There’s just this whole other world out of the phone.”
CJ Regencia, 16
Red Deer, Alta., student CJ Regencia says she’s wary about social media, given her concerns about digital privacy and platforms harvesting user data, not to mention the addictive and time-wasting scrolling she sees.
While the Gr. 10 student does use a limited, web browser version of Instagram, mostly to send messages, she says being surrounded by so many people blithely using platforms like Instagram, SnapChat and Tiktok “creates a sort of slight disconnection between me and my peers.”
Regencia prefers the longer-form content of podcasts or videos by YouTubers sharing first-hand experiences, like on-the-ground updates from student-led protests in Nepal last fall.
Yet the disciplined teen, who carefully tracks her time (30 minutes to practice violin here, two hours earmarked for studying there), admits sometimes short-form videos still snag her attention.
A few minutes of scrolling can quickly turn out to be a half-hour gone, she said. “That feels so crazy to me.”
Annabelle Roberge, 15, and Vigyanshi Tiwari, 17
Warned away from social media early on by her parents, Gr. 11 student Vigyanshi Tiwari says she’s chosen to stay on that path even after getting a smartphone. She might use it to call a friend or read during her hour-long bus ride to school, but says she isn’t really interested in social apps.
Her busy extracurricular life — including the cadet program, school leadership activities, choir, community events at a Hindu temple and backstage duties for her Ormstown, Que., high school’s production of Moana — doesn’t leave much room for messaging and scrolling.
Gr. 9 student Annabelle Roberge, Tiwari’s schoolmate involved in many of the same activities, says it’s annoying to go hang out with friends “and then suddenly everyone’s on their phones.” Instead she prefers more active fun.
That said, as Roberge pares down her few social accounts — Snapchat is next to go, she says — she has noticed others also taking breaks or deleting apps.
It’s important to talk about it, she says, because you never know when you could influence another person to follow suit.
Priya Mehta, 18
Ahead of exams just weeks ago, University of Alberta student Priya Mehta realized her social feeds were distracting her from studying. “I would get up and the first thing I do is check my phone, see who texted me, scroll on TikTok for a bit. But then that would kind of turn into a few hours,” she said.
Mehta also realized she was always reaching for her phone during lulls at work, risking reprimand by her manager. So the Edmonton student deleted her socials.
Despite a rough first two weeks, Mehta says she feels proud she’s no longer turning to her phone for constant distraction.
“My attention span is much, much better. I can focus on things for way longer,” she said. She’s also returned to reading for pleasure, she added, rather than passively scanning content fed to her.
Graeme Hopkins, 21
Graeme Hopkins recalls the allure of social media in high school. “It felt attractive in some way to feel seen … to feel as though people are interested in you,” he said from Saskatoon.
Yet starting university has shifted his priorities about what’s most important and prompted him to rethink his views on posting: “Do I want everyone to know about this? Who do I want to know this?” he said.
Though generally leaning on his laptop for his assignments at the University of Saskatchewan, he says he’s also started handwriting some notes, finding it “more relaxing almost, but then [the content] more memorable.”
It’s the kind of advice parents and teachers typically encourage, but Hopkins says it only sticks when students are in the right frame of mind.
“It’s coming from us now,” he said. “Some things we need to figure out for ourselves.”
Real benefits to breaks
Duerden, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders, says people can get real benefits from even shorter smartphone breaks (say a portion of each day or during the weekend) and from simple changes, like using a traditional alarm clock rather than a tech device at your bedside.
“People are reporting that they’re feeling better, that they have a cognitive boost,” Duerden said.
“All of those little things can really add up to something big, where we are promoting mental health and overall well-being in teens.”
London Morning7:17Would you switch to a flip phone to reduce your screen time?
Some people are switching out their smartphones for flip phones to reduce how much time they spend staring at their screens. Emma Duerden is a an associate professor at Western University and Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders. Duerden told London Morning about her research into a rise of digital minimalism.
