Want To Cure Your Screen Addiction? Form A Luddite Club

As the end of year approaches, now is the time to come up with New Year’s resolutions to make 2023 a better year. And while there are the usual resolutions to lose weight, read more, and cut down on bad habits, one resolution everyone can make is getting off their screens. However, the trick to making this work is to do this as a community, not alone.

Curiously, one group that’s leading the charge on this effort happens to be teenagers in New York City. In an ultimate act of rebellion, Logan Lane decided to found the Luddite Club at her high school, an organization devoted to the screen-free life. Instead of constantly huddling over their phones like their peers, members of the Luddite Club can be seen in the park, drawing, watercoloring, meditating, and reading classic books.

During meetings, and presumably most of the day, many of them either put their iPhones out of reach or use a flip phone. In other words, they live like teenagers did in the past. They have deep conversations with one another, have hobbies, and spend much of their time distinguishing themselves from the rest of their classmates. For those of us who grew up without a smartphone or a high-speed internet connection, much of what Logan and her friends talk about will sound very similar to the types of conversations we had at that age.

Less Depression, More Individuality

Besides rekindling a bit of nostalgia, what the Luddite Club demonstrates is just how much screen attachment has alienated people from one another as well as squelched any genuine individuality. Logan relates how she became addicted to her phone during the Covid shutdowns: “I had this online personality of, ‘I don’t care,’ but I actually did. I was definitely still watching everything.” Other members of the club report the same, reevaluating their relationships and their own personalities in the context of physical reality instead of virtual reality.

It’s also encouraging to see the reduction of depression and anxiety when one cuts the cord. Members of the Luddite Club reported feeling happier and liberated. Students on the “Unplugged Scholarship” at Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Ohio, say they have personally benefited from ditching their smartphones. They feel freed from the constant peer pressure of social media and the crippling obsession to check their phones every minute.

Benefits of a Group

That said, considering that the “unplugged,” “Luddite” lifestyle was the norm not so long ago, some might question the decision to create a scholarship, much less form an official club to bring about a societal change in attitude. Even if screen addiction has become widespread enough to require serious intervention (as I argue here), shouldn’t this just be a choice made by the individual — at least when it comes to adults? Is this really a founding principle or framework for an organization or one’s identity?

According to the popular self-help book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, this is precisely how one should approach