This Gen Z-er quit social media and hasnt looked back since

When I called Gabriela Nguyen, the 23-year-old founder of APPstinent, she picked up on her Cat S22 flip phone.Technically, because it runs the stripped-down operating system Android Go, you could consider it a rugged smartphone. But because of its style, size, and configuration, Nguyen can’t easily or enjoyably spend the day using social media apps, if she ever downloaded any.That’s because after years of trying to curtail her use, Nguyen abandoned social media. She’s not even on LinkedIn, which is arguably impressive for a student enrolled in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.Now that she’s liberated herself from social media and a sophisticated smartphone, she’s determined to help others do the same through APPstinent, a Harvard student organization that she founded. It offers free coaching for clients to help them create a personalized “Digital Lifestyle Plan.” SEE ALSO: Why teens are telling strangers their secrets online Nguyen is particularly invested in helping fellow members of Gen Z to reclaim their lives. She believes they’ve moved from a phone-based childhood, which prevented them from learning “soft skills” like making eye contact and approaching strangers, to an “infantilizing” phone-based adulthood.They’re supposed to be grownups but still use the same technologies and don’t know how to leave behind the “petty social games” they learned online as teens. She insists that it’s up to them, with support from older generations, to take back what they’ve lost as a result.”It is not our fault our childhoods were like this, but it is our responsibility for our…This Gen Z-er quit social media and hasnt looked back since