It’s easy to lose track of time while scrolling through Instagram or TikTok until a sudden jolt of awareness reminds you that a “quick break” has quietly stretched into half an hour.
That moment of disruption
is exactly what Olivia Yokubonis aims to create. Known online as Olivia Unplugged, Yokubonis regularly appears in social media feeds with calm, research-backed reminders that viewers may not even remember the video they watched moments earlier. Her goal: to interrupt mindless scrolling and prompt people to put their phones down.
Most viewers welcome the intrusion, treating it as a gentle nudge to log off. Others are less impressed, questioning the irony of posting anti-scroll content on social media itself. Yokubonis is unfazed. “For us to actually be seen, we have to be where people are,” she said, noting that the message has to meet users inside the platforms they habitually use.
A growing movement inside the feed
Yokubonis is part of a small but growing group of creators whose content encourages people to close the very apps they’re watching. Some take a confrontational tone, others a softer approach. Yokubonis, who works for the screen-time app Opal, keeps overt branding to a minimum, believing authenticity matters more than promotion. The millions of views on her videos suggest the approach is working.
Her content taps into a widespread feeling that people spend more time online than they intend to a concern backed by research. Ofir Turel, a professor at the University of Melbourne, has studied social media use for years. He found that when participants were shown their actual screen-time data, many were “in a state of shock,” and a significant number voluntarily cut back.
Does social media addiction really exist?
Despite the concern, experts remain divided on whether heavy social media use qualifies as addiction. Some argue that addiction requires symptoms like withdrawal and uncontrollable urges. Others say the term resonates because it captures how trapped users often feel.
Ian A. Anderson, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, suggests that perception itself can be part of the problem. In a study of Instagram users, many believed they were addicted, but only a small fraction showed symptoms that put them at actual risk.
“If you perceive yourself as more addicted, it can hurt your ability to control your use,” Anderson said, adding that self-blame can make overuse harder to address.
Small steps, real impact
For people trying to cut down, Anderson recommends modest changes, such as moving apps off the home screen, turning off notifications or keeping phones out of the bedroom. These “light-touch interventions” can reduce habitual checking without requiring drastic measures.
Still, awareness is the first hurdle. That’s where creators like Yokubonis and others come in, planting early seeds of reflection inside the scroll itself.
One such creator is Cat Goetze, known online as CatGPT. Drawing on her tech background, Goetze explains why platforms are so compelling and why willpower alone often fails. “There’s an entire infrastructure designed to keep you scrolling,” she said. “It’s not your fault.”
Goetze also founded Physical Phones, a company that makes Bluetooth landline-style phones to help users reduce screen time. Its success, built largely through social media, highlights a growing appetite for balance even if the solutions themselves are discovered online.
Rethinking the scroll
With billions of users on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, debates over screen time aren’t going away. But creators disrupting feeds from the inside are reframing the conversation not as a demand to quit social media entirely, but as an invitation to use it more intentionally.
“Social media will always be part of our lives,” Goetze said. “If we can reduce screen time even a little, that’s a net positive for individuals and for society.”
