Social Media
Does Your Teen Hate Social Media?
If so, they can start a Luddite club!
Posted February 4, 2025 Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.
Key points
- Some kids are tired of social media.
- Some are starting clubs that oppose the use of electronic devices like smartphones.
- These clubs are spreading to a number of high schools and colleges throughout the US.
I know, I know. Most teens love it and are on their phones 24/7. But do you have one of those rare teens who is just ... over it? Who sees through all the curated images of life? Who is actually tired of sitting on their bed all day and watching life go by through a screen? Because, if you do, they are not alone.
The New York Times reporter Alex Vadukul has written two stories on a group of teens in Brooklyn who started something they called "The Luddite Club." Biruk Watling was one of the founders. Now a student at Temple University in Philadelphia, she says that she and some friends from high school started the club in 2022. They gathered in Prospect Park on the weekends sketching, painting, reading ... and, most radical of all, talking together. They named their club after the bands of English workers who destroyed new machinery in cotton and woolen mills from 1811 to 1816 because they believed the machinery was threatening their jobs. These days, Luddites are people who oppose new technology.
Logan Lane, one of the members of the club in Brooklyn, said this: "Like other iPad kids, I found myself from the age of 10 longing to be famous on apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. My phone kept the curated lives of my friends with me wherever I went, following me to the dinner table, to the bus stop, and finally to my bed, where I fell asleep groggy and irritable, often at late hours in the night, clutching my device." Then, at 14, she had a revelation while sitting by the Gowanus Canal. She said, "I felt the sudden urge to throw my iPhone in the water. I saw no difference between the garbage on my phone and the garbage surfacing on the polluted canal". A few months later, she signed off on social media and put her smartphone in a drawer.
The Luddite Club members all got flip phones so that they could call people and they used their computers for homework — but otherwise they tried to stay away from electronic media.
Now Biruk is recruiting members for a new Luddite Club at college. But just because she and her friends have tried to embrace this lifestyle does not mean they don't have struggles with their decisions. Sometimes, they feel left out. Odile Dexter, another founding member of the club, says that she has resisted using technology since high school, but she is sad that everyone at college uses dating apps and she cannot. Another member said she tried to adhere to the lifestyle but ended up getting a smartphone because she needed to order an Uber now and then. Many of the club members agreed that it is harder to live without using a smartphone these days.
It's just not easy giving up some of the technology that is so omnipresent — but that hasn't stopped more clubs from forming. There is one at Brooklyn Tech, one at Telluride High School in Colorado, one at Oberlin College, and one each at high schools and colleges in Seattle, West Palm Beach, Florida, Richmond, Va., South Bend, Indiana, and Washington, DC.
If you have a teen who's had it with social media, tell them about these clubs and maybe your teen will want to start one, too.
And if your kids are still loving their phones, try these ideas, as suggested by Andrew McPeak:
1. Expose your kids to articles and shows about children and teens who are making other choices about their use of social media.
2. Have discussions at home about how your kids' media choices are affecting them and encourage your school to do the same.
3. Plan device-free activities, times, days, and vacations for your family — and this means you too!!!
References
Vaduku, Alex. Still averting social media's grip. The New York Times, February 2, 2025.
https://www.theludditeclub.org
McPeak, Andrew. A new wave of teens are pulling away from social media. Growing Leaders. https://growingleaders.com/a-new-wave-of-teens-are-breaking-away-from-social-media/