THE LATEST MILLENNIAL STAPLE TO BECOME UNCOOL? BEING ONLINE

Newsweek Exclusive Feature

Gen Z is ditching social media and being offline is becoming a status symbol, but could this movement have a real impact?

A string of viral social media posts—ironically, online—have made one thing clear: spending heaps of time on the internet, once the great escape of a generation, is no longer cool.

Oxford University Press hinted at a shift when it named "brain rot" its 2024 Word of the Year. The term, which describes the cognitive decay caused by excessive doomscrolling and online saturation, captures the growing disillusionment with social media felt among younger millennials and Gen Z.

For many, the ultimate social currency no longer appears to be how many followers you have, but how few social media platforms you use and if they are on private mode. More young people are deleting their accounts, adopting old-school flip phones, picking up analog hobbies and embracing digital minimalism. Film cameras, paperback books and even "dumbphones"—simpler mobile devices without addictive social features—are making a comeback.

Once seen as outdated, being offline is now perceived as a luxury in a world where everyone is perpetually plugged in.

Francesco Bogliacino is an associate professor of economics at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. His research focuses on behavioral and experimental economics, and he told Newsweek it makes sense that going offline has become somewhat cool among younger people.

"It reflects the desire for intentional, high-quality content consumption," Bogliacino told Newsweek. "Being disconnected from social media is becoming a status symbol and selective newsletters and blogs represent costly signals.

"We are also more aware of the harmful effects of social media like mental health issues, polarization and misinformation."

Appeal of Digital Detox

Kate Cassidy Fletcher, a 28-year-old living in New York City, has experienced this shift firsthand. In November 2024, she posted a YouTube video detailing why she deleted all of her social media accounts except for YouTube itself. The video, which has amassed over 80,000 views, has sparked positive comments from viewers.

"As a professional in the advertising tech world and having previously worked for TikTok in their monetization arm, I have been grappling with my own relationship with social media over the years with an acute awareness of how these platforms operate," Fletcher told Newsweek.

She traces her social media history back to middle school, when Facebook and Gchat first became popular.

It felt innocent and fun," she said. "But we were being trained, subconsciously, to prioritize screen time over real-world interaction."

Working for TikTok during the pandemic made her hyper-aware of the platform's impact on attention spans, mental health and parasocial relationships.

"A statistic we would use in our sales pitch to advertisers was that the average daily time spent was 92 minutes a day scrolling TikTok videos," Fletcher said. "That is over an hour and a half of constant dopamine hits from the second you open the app."

Eventually, she reached her breaking point.

"I finally decided that I had had enough and wanted to see if I could quit cold turkey," she said. "Once I deleted one platform and realized how much better it made me feel, it was a domino effect to give me the courage to finally delete the others."

While she saw a big pay-off over time, Fletcher did not expect how much she would struggle without social media at first.

"I compulsively checked my phone, only to realize there was nothing to check," she said.

But with time, she gained something she had not anticipated—clarity.

It took Fletcher "a serious adjustment period" to get used to life offline, but she soon learned that deleting social media afforded her the freedom from constant external stimulation to tap into her intuition.

"I feel like the truest version of myself knowing I am not being influenced by trends," she added. "A younger Gen Z coworker immediately reacted to my decision by saying, 'wow, that is such a flex'.

"It looks like this attitude is gaining traction among younger people."

Social Cachet of Logging Off

For some, the act of quitting social media is indeed becoming a new kind of status symbol. The wealthiest and most powerful figures in Silicon Valley—ironically, the very architects of social media—have long kept their children away from these platforms.

Now, young people outside of the tech bubble want in. Fletcher believes that being offline does carry some "mystique."

"There can be a touch of intrigue that comes with being unreachable via social media," she said. "But for the most part, friends react with confusion: 'Wait…What do you do with your time?' Then they affirm it: 'That sounds really healthy, I should think about that in my own life'."

For 25-year-old Alex Edwards, the appeal of deleting social media was not about mystique—it was about escaping a digital world that felt suffocating.

'Deleting Social Media Is Self-Care'

Edwards, who runs a business, once believed that social media was necessary for his success. But in 2020, as online culture reached a fever pitch, he began questioning its role in his life.

"Social media went from being a fun, every-now-and-then thing to something I was using on a daily basis—and then an hourly basis," he told Newsweek. "I felt like I could not escape the chronically online society we had become.

"It felt claustrophobic."

Realizing his business did not actually depend on Instagram or TikTok, he made a drastic decision.

"I deleted my Instagram and TikTok accounts, removed most of my friends on Facebook, and locked my account," he said. "The result? Immediate relief and a quieter mind.

"And I have not looked back in months."

Edwards has no plans to return to mainstream platforms like TikTok and Instagram, deeming the world a better place without them.

"The happiest and most successful people I know actively avoid social media," he said.

For him, quitting social media was not about rejecting technology entirely—but was instead about reclaiming time.

"Over a lifetime, how much does this scrolling time add up to? Months? More likely, years," he said. "Decades for some.

"It is time to step back into the real world."

Even Dating Is Going Offline

The shift towards digital minimalism has even started to affect how people date. Zaahirah Adam, the founder of Hati, a newly-launched dating app, saw an opportunity to make dating less transactional and more intentional.

"Dating apps have not changed in over a decade," Adam told Newsweek. "They have left us stuck in a loop of swiping, texting and ghosting, completely disconnected from what people actually want."

Hati, which eliminates endless messaging in favor of direct voice calls, is built around human interaction rather than algorithms.

"A text does not carry the warmth of a voice," she said. "A laughing emoji on Instagram is not the same as seeing someone's smile.

"I think people are finally waking up to that."

Like Edwards, for Adam, the digital detox trend is not about rejecting technology itself, but about freeing oneself from "meaningless interactions."

"Gen Z is not rejecting technology," the dating app founder said. "They are rejecting vapid interactions and companies that are profiting from our misery."

Ironically, it was on the internet that the rejection of constant connectivity started to gain traction. A string of viral social media posts—yes, on social media—began to weigh up if being online is still cool.

One creator, Tiziana Bucec (@tiiiziana) from Berlin, Germany sparked discussion among viewers online after highlighting how overwhelming a short scroll through a social media platform can be, in a post from 2024.

"Humans are not designed for this," she told her followers, referring to the cognitive overload associated with taking in everything you see online.

The 19-year-old later spoke with Newsweek about how she felt being online without a break.

"I don't think it's healthy to constantly consume so much information," Bucec told Newsweek. "Making the active choice to be offline is definitely becoming more of a luxury, and I think that trend will only continue.

"Many of my friends have already deleted TikTok, and I see that as part of a larger shift."

She said that she has spotted other people around her age seeking "real and tangible experiences"—and by that she meant ones that don't take place on a screen.

"I see people thrifting instead of online shopping or seeing reading books as cool and hot, I think this is because people are looking for ways to reconnect with themselves and the world around them," she added.

Like Edwards and Cassidy, another creator, Amanie Grace, took to YouTube in September, 2024 to share the benefits she felt from deleting her other social media accounts.

Grace told Newsweek that she was inspired to take the leap after watching The Social Dilemma on Netflix, and after realizing that she was placing too much of her attention on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

She added that excessive social media use led to her comparing herself to other young people with vastly different circumstances and bank accounts to her, which led to her feeling low.

"I do believe though that the next big trend will be something more about community and about real life clubs, like run clubs, pilates and book clubs," Grace, who has spotted business leaning into all things "IRL," told Newsweek. "Still, we will probably be using social media platforms to gather those people together."

Brand consultant and social media creator @eugbrandstrat weighed in on the discourse in a TikTok video from January 13. In it, the creator, who analyzes social and cultural trends, said that "IRL" is becoming a new status symbol.

Other creators complained of cloud services and apps deleting their content, which led to them favoring physical photographs, books and documents over those shared online.

One creator, 28-year-old Kristi from California, told Newsweek that she also believes being offline has become "a new social currency" because it is now less mainstream than being online.

"Social currency has always been about exclusivity and in a world where everyone is constantly online, being offline—unreachable, disconnected, or selective about your presence—is becoming a luxury statement," Kristi, who would prefer to keep her full identity private, told Newsweek. "Instead of oversharing every moment, many people now see curating a quiet, private life as the ultimate social flex.

"Gen Z isn't fully labeling excessive social media use as uncool—yet, but there's a clear shift happening and cracks in the 'always online' culture are starting to show."

Kristi, who creates content exploring cultural trends under @tinysey, has also spotted that young people are craving more "meaningful" ways to spend their time instead of doomscrolling.

"Instead of the performative, hyper-visible online presence that defined the millennial era Gen Z is starting to embrace a more controlled and selective approach to social media," she said. "They're not necessarily quitting, but they are rethinking how and why they engage online.

"We're witnessing digital exhaustion, people are tired of always being online, always being reachable, and seeing the same content recycled by the algorithm, which is why activities like reading have become 'quiet luxury' symbols."

Is Social Media Really Out?

Despite the growing disillusionment, and Gen Z being found to use these platforms less than millennials, social media is likely here to stay.

Being online remains a fundamental part of how society operates—how people communicate, organize things and do business.

Even Fletcher acknowledges the tension.

"Would I ever rejoin social media? Maybe for business purposes," she said. "The unfortunate reality is that if you want a message to reach a widespread audience, the internet is an undeniably powerful tool."

Edwards, however, remains firm in his decision to keep away from the apps. The 25-year-old said that he does not miss feeling overstimulated from the moment he opens his eyes to the moment he falls asleep.

"I firmly believe we would all benefit from stepping away," he said. "Social media's sole purpose is to gather data—the new oil—and sell that data to companies.

"It is incredibly dangerous."

For now, the quiet revolution against hyperconnectivity continues. Whether it is a passing trend or a deeper cultural shift remains to be seen, but for a growing number of young people, the ultimate status symbol is no longer a verified badge or a large follower count—it is found in the freedom of being offline and in being able to disconnect.

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