Youth Share Insights on Tech Habits and Digital Well-Being

Digital well-being—the ability to maintain a healthy, intentional relationship with technology—is more important now than ever given rising mental health concerns and increasing dependence on social media.

Over the past several months, Digital Promise brought together youth 14–18-years-old to co-design solutions on digital well-being challenges—such as addiction to devices and social media, exposure to harmful content, and diminished attention spans and ability to build genuine connections in person. The young people collaboratively investigated common challenges and prototyped ideas to promote digital well-being.

The result of their work is Tech Talk, a simple card game that encourages authentic conversations among young people about the impacts of technology and social media.

We spoke with some of these youth co-designers who modeled responses to some of the compelling discussion prompts they created. Their reflections offer insight into how youth are approaching healthy technology habits with intention, empathy, and humor.

What’s one app that you spend too much time on, but want to spend less time on? Why?

Isha: Instagram, 100%. I got Instagram when I was really young. My dad used to work for Facebook. I was basically his Instagram account manager, because he got an Instagram account through his work. But then I started using it more and more, and a lot of my social things happen on Instagram. Because I rely on it so much, I end up being on it a lot more than I should. It just becomes second nature to open my phone and go to Instagram, and I wish I wasn’t on it as much.

Oliver: I also spend too much time on Instagram but want to spend less time on it because there is nothing useful going on.

Annabelle: If we’re just looking at apps on the phone, it would just be text messaging. I talk to a lot of different friends. I’m from a really rural area, so a lot of the people that I really do connect with are from at least an hour drive away. But, we act differently whenever we’re texting versus on a call or face-to-face. We’re thinking through everything, we’re overthinking our responses, overthinking what the other person says. I think that’s a problem that a lot of different teens have.

Samanvi: I would honestly say my email, because I do some clubs at school, I’m in organizations, and I’m applying for a few different things, so I’m always looking at my email thinking, “Oh my gosh, what’s gonna come in?”

Between classes, or whenever I have some idle time, I’m looking at my email obsessively, and I want to spend less time on that. It’s definitely not a good thing, because I’m thinking about everything besides what I’m doing in that moment.

Have you ever tried to use your phone or social media less? What’s worked, and what hasn’t?

Oliver: I recently deleted TikTok and find that deleting an app that I want to use less has worked best. I recently downloaded Instagram again because everyone was using it to communicate at a conference I just attended, but I will probably delete it again.

Samanvi: I don’t have any social media, and I don’t use my phone for much more than checking my email and calling my parents to pick me up. But I know my friends have tried to get off things like Instagram. One of my friends would just completely stop using her Instagram for about a week. And then, at the end of that week, she would re-download it and go back to doing whatever she was doing on it. Because Instagram was how she spoke with her friends and talked to people whose numbers she didn’t have, it was just a necessary thing for communication.

I think you can’t just completely stop using something like that. You would have to slowly kind of lessen use over time. Because that’s going to seem really abrupt, and then you might go back to using it, because that’s a really big change.

Isha: I’ve been using social media less this school year because, as a high school senior, I wanted to end on a good note. Something that has helped me is getting back into doing creative things and things that I enjoy. Having a month or so without social media every so often can be so helpful. I was off of Instagram for all of April, and that’s when I was able to reconnect with the things that I thought were important before I was online so much.

I remember thinking, “What did I do before I had Instagram?”

I remembered reading all the time because my attention span was actually capable of it. So, being able to rebuild that and actively thinking, “What do I want to do with my time if it’s not this?”

Does your school have rules for when or how to use personal devices or social media? How do you feel about the rules? What’s one thing you would change?

Samanvi: At my school, it really depends on the teacher, but some teachers don’t allow phones in the class. They have little pocket holders for phones on their door or on the wall, and everybody has to go up and put their phones in the pocket. One of my classes has 17 students, and in those pocket holders you see maybe four phones when the entire class has a phone.

Surprisingly, the teachers that don’t use those pockets and don’t really mention anything about phones, those are the classes where you never see anybody using their phones. At a certain point, when students feel like they’re being commanded to do something, they just do the opposite out of spite.

I think schools should focus more on setting boundaries with phones rather than banning them completely.

Isha: My school also enforced a phone pocket policy recently. We also got school-designated MacBooks to replace our old Chromebooks so that people weren’t bringing in their personal devices anymore. I actually quite like the phone policy. I feel like I’m more engaged with class.

I do have one issue with the way that the MacBooks have been working. They have a bunch of random websites blocked. They have the New York Times blocked, which has a lot of good research, but they don’t have ChatGPT blocked. I don’t understand. I feel like it’s because artificial intelligence (AI) can be used as a tool, but the young people who are using ChatGPT in high school aren’t necessarily going to be using it as a tool, especially if they don’t know how to use it yet. So, that’s my only qualm with the policy.

Annabelle: Our school is amazing at saying, “We’re here to learn.”

Like, this is an environment for us to focus on our future and focus on our goals. We don’t have phones, tablets, or personal computers in the classroom. Teachers will take away phones if they see them and then give them back at the end of class. If it happens multiple times, the administrator might come in and say, “Hey, I noticed this has been going on a lot lately. How about we have a chat?”

We’ll talk about how using phones at school is relevant to our goals, and how our school can really support students, which is really incredible.

If you could give one piece of advice to a person younger than you about technology and social media, what would it be?

Oliver: It’s all a performance, and it’s not real.

Isha: It depends how young we’re talking. If it’s someone who’s middle school age, I would say to not value what’s happening online as much as what’s happening in person, because it’s not nearly as important.

I remember when I was in middle school. I had just moved to a new area, and I felt like the only way I could be engaged with social things is if I was on Instagram all the time. That ended up making me less focused on the people who were trying to be friends with me at school and wanted to engage with me.
I think valuing things in person more than things online is so important, especially when you’re that young. It creates a good habit.

Samanvi: I’m 15, and I don’t think that anybody under 15 should be actively using social media or even using technology really frequently.

I would definitely tell them to learn about those things. Learn about social media by asking, “How does it work? How does it affect people?” and learn a lot about technology by thinking about “How does a search engine work? How does AI work? How and why do we use them?”

Reflecting on these questions is going to prepare you for using those things, so you’ll be more likely to use them responsibly.

Annabelle: Don’t use it. I’m also 15, so somebody younger than me is going to be a student in junior high or elementary school, and that interaction with social media is going to have an impact. You’re going to see shorter attention spans, struggles in school, and decreased mental health. I would just say it’s not worth it in the long run. It’s not going to help you with your goals, and you’re not gonna end up being your own person. It’s going to be constant conformity.

I think that learning to use it in moderation is okay, but you need to be really strict on that. Unfortunately, teenagers don’t have that ability to really restrict their use as much as adults do.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone older than you about technology and social media, what would it be?

Oliver: I would tell parents that the way you use technology influences the way younger people behave as well. If you want your children to use technology less, you have to do that as well.

Samanvi: I would answer this for somebody about my parents’ age—maybe in their 40s. I would say that if something is this integrated into our lives, you can’t really consider it as “evil.” There are things about technology and about social media that are really beneficial to us.

We have such an amazing amount of access to information. We get to talk to people that we otherwise wouldn’t be connected to. Of course there are negatives, but it’s not all bad.

Isha: Stay off of Facebook Reels! My mom has been on it crazy-style recently. It’s odd to watch someone who’s been reprimanding me for being on my phone too much fall for the exact same things that I have. It’s like watching a baby get a new, really annoying toy for the first time. It’s as novel to them as it was to us a couple years ago. So, no Facebook Reels, and keep reading the news instead of Facebook.

Want to try Tech Talk with your students, friends, or family? Download the card game.

Read the full report to learn more about the co-design process and findings.