New movement encourages students to ‘Log Off’

The Log Off Movement has expanded its reach to San Diego, where the organization’s leaders are encouraging local students to adopt the cause and become more mindful of their social media usage.

“The main thing we want to communicate to students is that even though there are good things and bad things about social media, that many people use it for long amounts of time per day and it’s designed to be addictive,” said Matthew Korniczky, a Rancho Santa Fe resident and freshman at Cathedral Catholic High School. “If there’s one thing we ask people to do, it’s to research more about the addictive parts of social media and learn the different ways the platforms get people to stay on their site.”

Korniczky, who serves as Log Off’s director of public relations on its leadership council, which includes students from all over the world, added that Log Off is a group of “teens from different countries trying to confront social media addiction.”

“As somebody who has been affected by social media negatively, where I was using it so much that my grades dropped, I wanted to learn more about it,” he said.

Korniczky said he found Log Off while scrolling through one of his social media feeds one day. The organization offers a podcast, blog and other resources for students who want to better regulate their social media habits and reduce their screen time.

According to research by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, about 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% of them say they are online almost constantly. YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are a few of the most popular platforms that they use, according to Pew’s research, which was released in 2018. TikTok has also become increasingly popular over the past few years.

“We’re not anti-social media,” Korniczky said, adding that the goal of Log Off is to initiate more conversations about the pros and cons of social media usage. “Most of our members use social media. We’re just anti-social media addiction.”

The organization also promotes resources such as apps that can help enforce limits on time spent using social media by tracking screen time and giving users notifications when they’ve reached their limit.

Log Off offers challenges to reduce screen time by 50%. Future goals and possible initiatives that Log Off will pursue include a school membership program and a curriculum that students can follow.

For more information, visit logoffmovement.org.