Gabriela Nguyen didn’t set out to start a movement. The 23-year-old Harvard graduate student was just trying to focus, reclaim her time and get rid of the nagging all-consuming presence of social media in her life. She never expected to inspire a growing number of young people to do the same.
Nguyen is the founder of APPstinent, a philosophy-turned-movement that encourages Gen Z to quit social media altogether. Not just to detox, not to put timers on apps, not to set boundaries, but to fully abstain. And she’s not just talking the talk—she’s been completely off social media for years. Now, her journey from a Silicon Valley kid surrounded by tech to a social media-free Harvard student is striking a chord with people who feel increasingly trapped by their screens.
It all started with a moment of realization. “I was 15 years old, trying to finish my homework and I remember looking at my phone thinking, ‘Who are you?’” Nguyen recalls. “It wasn’t just a device. It was like this beating, living force that wouldn’t leave me alone. And I remember feeling…betrayed. This thing was supposed to connect me to people but all it did was sabotage me.”
She tried to practice “moderate use,” the way countless digital wellness guides suggest—limiting her time on certain apps, setting notifications to silent, making promises to herself that she’d only check social media for five minutes at a time. But it never stuck.
“For years, I kept telling myself I could be mindful about it,” she says. “That I could be intentional and control it. But these apps are designed to be impossible to control. That’s the whole business model.”
It wasn’t until she started experimenting with deactivation—first one app, then another—that she realized something radical. The less she used social media, the better she felt. The fewer accounts she had, the more present she was. She started to delete them one by one until finally, there were none left to reactivate.
And then she did something even more drastic: she downgraded her phone.
“I bought a flip phone,” Nguyen says with a laugh. “People thought I was crazy. But I wanted to make sure there was no easy way back.”
By the time she started her master’s program at Harvard, she was completely off social media, using only phone calls, emails and video chats to stay in touch. She wasn’t just surviving—she was thriving.
“I have stronger relationships now than I ever did when I was constantly connected,” she says. “I don’t waste hours scrolling. I don’t feel that weird anxiety of needing to check something every five minutes. My mental health improved. My focus improved. My friendships actually got deeper.”
The more she talked about it, the more she realized she wasn’t alone. Other students at Harvard—brilliant, ambitious high-achieving young adults—were struggling with the same thing. So she decided to formalize what had worked for her.
She called it APPstinent—a deliberate play on abstinence, because for her, quitting social media wasn’t just about cutting back. It was about total commitment.
“Moderation doesn’t work,” Nguyen insists. “If you have to constantly battle an app to keep it from taking over your life, are you really in control? Or is it in control of you?”
The 5D Method—Decrease, Deactivate, Delete, Downgrade, Depart—was her answer. It’s a step-by-step process designed to help people quit social media sustainably, without the constant back-and-forth of reactivating accounts or feeling like they’re missing out.
At first, she wasn’t sure if anyone else would actually do it. But as she began sharing her story, more people started to listen. Students asked her for advice. Friends told her they wanted to try quitting. Slowly, APPstinent grew from a personal philosophy to a movement.
And in an age where nearly every aspect of life is tied to social media—jobs, relationships self-expression—it’s a radical idea. But Nguyen isn’t afraid to push against the status quo.
“I know it sounds extreme,” she says. “People tell me all the time, ‘But how will you keep up with culture? How will you stay informed?’ And the truth is, I do. I talk to friends about world events, I engage in my community. I’m not out of the loop. I’m just not letting an algorithm decide what I see.”
For those who worry about missing out, Nguyen says the trade-off is worth it.
“I used to have hundreds of ‘friends’ online but how many of them really knew me? Now, my friendships are real. My conversations are deeper. My attention is fully mine again.”
For some, quitting social media might sound impossible. But Nguyen insists that’s just what the platforms want you to think.
“They want you to believe you can’t live without them,” she says. “But you can. And it’s actually better.”
And for the first time, a growing number of young people are starting to believe her.
