Last month, a teenager told me: “I knew I had a problem when I went to write my grandma an email and I couldn’t do it without Chat.”
When I heard this, it stopped me in my tracks because 11 years ago, I too was grappling with my relationship with technology. In fact, I nearly ended my own life due to the effects of social media. Since that pivotal moment in my dorm room, I’ve been working to prevent teens from going down the same black hole by equipping them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital world. I’ve spent day after day in rooms with parents who have lost kids to suicide or had their teen’s college application rescinded due to deep fakes. I’ve spent the past year working with policymakers and educators to try to solve the issue of our time: phones in schools. I’ve spent my 10,000 hours in classrooms and in my DMs, listening to teens who will spend an average of 30 years of their lives on their phones.
