Blog Posts

Every Sunday, I get that notification telling me my screen time. Before this day, I don’t expect to be surprised. After all, I only use my phone for school, to talk to friends, to listen to music, and, honestly, to relax, especially after a long day. But when I see that number at the end of each week, I hesitate and I wonder: when and where did all of those hours go? I don’t endlessly scroll all day, and I don’t ignore my responsibilities or the people around me. Then, I reme

Everyday people use social media as a way to connect with others, to express themselves. As social media turn approval through visible numbers such as likes, reposts, and follows it replaces our care for ourselves with online validation. This is why digital wellness has become increasingly important. We as humans naturally want acceptance, and social media is the most accessible way possible. Not only is approval accessible, it is measurable. A 2016 study showed that getting

I never expected Sonny Angels to become such a big part of online culture, but I understand why they did. There is something exciting about opening a blind box, not knowing which tiny figure you will get, and feeling like you found something that somehow matches you. For me, Sonny Angels represent a small kind of joy, I even wrote my college essay about them. I saw the importance of these small figures and how they branch into something deeper like growth, identity, and prese

Growing up, I loved playing video games. What started as simple entertainment quickly became one of my first experiences with large online communities. At first, gaming felt like an escape — a place to compete, laugh, make friends, and feel connected to people I would have never met otherwise. But as I spent more time in these spaces, especially games with voice chat, I began to notice how quickly fun online interactions could shift into something uncomfortable. For girls, o

Fragile masculinity is something I see thrown around online constantly, sometimes as a joke and sometimes as an insult. But behind the phrase is a real issue: the pressure many boys and young men feel to constantly prove that they are strong, dominant, unemotional, or “man enough.” In a digital world, masculinity is constantly being watched, judged, and challenged. A comment, repost, outfit, friendship, interest, or emotional reaction can become something people analyze or m