Taking Back Tech: Speaker Max Stossel Wants Canterbury to Log Off & Reconnect

It’s no secret that apps and online games are designed to keep users engaged for as long as possible, regardless of how that might affect their mental health. But how do we turn that knowledge into action to help us stop scrolling? To answer that question, Canterbury welcomed social media expert Max Stossel, the first speaker for the D’Amour Center for Faith, Service & Justice’s Speakers Series this year.

Mr. Stossel is an award-winning artist and the founder of Social Awakening, an organization dedicated to helping young people survive and thrive in the modern world. Previously, he was a media strategist who ran social media for big brands and later worked for a social media company, so he’s well-versed in the ways these platforms are designed to capture attention and influence behavior.

Throughout his talk on September 28, Mr. Stossel highlighted the ways apps and games manipulate the way we spend our time, but emphasized that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to social media use. Rather, he says, everyone should approach apps more thoughtfully and intentionally and routinely ask, “Am I using this technology or is this technology using me?”

“Which apps and games actually make you feel good after you’re on them? Which ones feel bad after?” he asked. “The better we get to know ourselves, the harder we are to be manipulated by these algorithms.”

That’s not to say there’s no room in a student’s day for browsing Instagram or laughing at a few videos on TikTok. But Mr. Stossel urged students to center human interaction rather than relying on technology, and especially social media, to build, maintain, or measure their relationships.

“Because these platforms gamify engagement with your friends, engaging through an app starts to feel like some sort of real measure of friendship, which is ridiculous when we say it out loud, but it still feels real,” he said. “If we're letting social media take us out of the things we love in our actual lives that way, I think that’s when we try to take a step back.”

While taking a break from scrolling your feed might lead to a few more boring moments, it can also create space for more moments of meaningful connection with your friends and community. After all, he points out, how many of your happiest, most memorable moments with your friends involved staring at your phone?

“It's never been easier to run away from ourselves as soon as things are a little bit awkward,” he says. “But so much meaning comes from powering through the hard part and getting through to the other side.”

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