Nelissa Moukoudi, 19, a university student in Canada, noticed a change once she joined Instagram and TikTok. “My social life completely fell apart, and it felt like my life was only about social media and school,” she said. Tired of struggling to control herself, Moukoudi downloaded Opal, an app that makes users solve math problems before they can reopen distracting apps. It is one of a growing number of companies in the expanding digital detox industry that attract users—ideally paying ones—by promising to keep them off their devices. The industry is valued at nearly $1 billion and is expected to grow to nearly $8 billion by 2035.
Many of these companies hope to benefit from gen Z’s growing fatigue with the devices and social media platforms they grew up with. Nearly 60% of gen Z respondents said they had a social media addiction in an April poll, and a third of the generation said they had deleted some of those apps, according to a 2025 survey.
It’s the age of regret: gen Z grew up glued to their screens and missed the joy of being human | Gaby Hinsliff
Read more
The shift has also been driven by growing anger at tech platforms that have left some in gen Z feeling as if they are being exploited for profit.
Gen Z “was basically optimized for dopamine by very smart systems,” said Kenneth Schlenker, 39, a former product marketer at Google and co-founder of Opal. “But this generation is also realizing what they don’t want and are trying to change how the system impacts them.”
Some are switching to new devices entirely. Kendall Schrohe, 23, a founding partner of the Attention Studio, a consulting firm that advises parents and policymakers on responsible tech, said she traded her smartphone for a Light Phone, which sells for $349 and has minimal smartphone features.
“These big tech platforms have been hurting people for years, and we are just now feeling the impacts of it,” Schrohe said. “Our generation were the guinea pigs for big tech, and our suffering and addiction to these apps were profited from.”
Shreya Nallamothu, 19, a computer science student at Duke University, made her own DIY “Brick,” a device to block selected apps, using $8 near-field communication (NFC) tags she bought online.
“Everyone deserves to have a good relationship with technology, and it shouldn’t be too expensive,” Nallamothu said. “Often the tech companies’ best interests aren’t in the users’ best interests. Social media has drifted away from what good technology can do, and people have noticed.”
“The doomscrolling economy is not one that we need to keep participating in”
Han Choi, 26
Research that Nallamothu conducted in high school helped convince state senators in Illinois to advance a recent bill to prevent parental exploitation of children on social media and helped the state pass a law forcing parents to compensate their kids.
New event-focused apps are also trying to benefit from the shift away from social media. Pie (People I Enjoy), an app highlighting local events including bar pop-ups, 5K runs and concert meetups, grew 150% in a single month—jumping from 120,000 users in July to 300,000 in August.
Co-founder Nadya Okamoto describes Pie as an in-person, active social network.
“I think of social media as this passive consumption of content, but Pie is separate from that,” Okamoto said. “Users are actively networking and building their social circle.”
‘It made my day more meaningful’: the Japanese gen Zers attempting a two-hour limit on smartphone use
Read more
Co-founder Andy Dunn, who also founded menswear brand Bonobos, added: “Everything about the product is designed to make you want to go and be in community with those people. It gives you so much more agency.”
The price of using such digital detox apps can vary. An Opal subscription costs $99.99 a year, while Brick, a physical block that phone users tap to lock and unlock apps, costs $59. Shift, anAn app that promises to turn a smartphone into a so-called “dumbphone” that can only make calls or send texts charges a one-time $150 fee. That is one reason why convincing Gen Z digital detoxers to pay for a new app could be tricky. Like about 95% of Opal’s 10 million customers, 75% of whom are Gen Z, Moukoudi said she is using the free version. “I am not going to pay for an app just to reclaim my life,” the university student said. For some, simply deleting apps does the trick. Han Choi, 26, deleted all social media apps last year to spend more of his time on trivia nights and workouts. “People are rejecting the systems that have been put in place by people who stand to profit off our compliance,” Choi said. “The doomscrolling economy is not one that we need to keep participating in.”
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs My Social Life Completely Fell Apart Gen Z Fighting Back Against Big Tech
1 What does Gen Z is fighting back against Big Tech mean
It refers to young people pushing back against social media and tech companies by quitting or limiting apps using screentime tools and demanding better protections
2 What is Big Tech
The term for the biggest technology companies like Meta Google TikToks parent company ByteDance and X that control most social media platforms
3 Why do some Gen Z users say their social life fell apart
Many feel that endless scrolling replaced real hangouts that algorithms fueled comparison and anxiety or that they lost the social skills and energy to connect in person
4 What are they doing to fight back
Common moves include deleting or limiting social apps doing digital detoxes switching to dumbphones using screentime limits and organizing for stricter regulation of tech companies
5 What is a digital detox
A set period a day a week or longer where you step away from social media or screens to reset your habits and see how you feel
6 Whats a dumbphone
A basic phone with no apps or internet just calls and texts Some Gen Z users switch to one to cut down on scrolling
7 Is social media actually bad for mental health
It can be especially with heavy use linked to anxiety comparison and poor sleep But it also helps people stay connected The effects depend on how and how much you use it
8 What are the benefits of cutting back
People often report better sleep more focus less anxiety more time for reallife friends and hobbies and feeling more in control
9 What are common problems when quitting
Cravings to check apps fear of missing out losing group chats and feeling out of the loop with friends who still use the apps
10 What is FOMO
Fear of missing out the anxious feeling that others are having fun or getting news youre missing while youre offline
11 Whats the difference between quitting and quiet quitting social media
Quitting means leaving platforms entirely Quiet quitting means staying on but barely posting or engaging just lurking or checking in rarely
