From apps that block distractions to stripped-down phones, young people are finding ways to unplug from platforms they say profit from their attention

Nelissa Moukoudi, 19, a university student in Canada, noticed a shift once she joined Instagram and TikTok.

“My social life completely plummeted and it felt like my life was only [using] social media and school,” she said.

Tired of fighting for self-control, Moukoudi downloaded Opal, an app that forces users to solve math problems before reopening distracting apps. It is one of a growing number of companies in the sprawling digital detox industry that is enticing users – ideally paying ones – by promising to keep them off their devices. The industry is valued at nearly $1bn and is estimated to grow to nearly $8bn by 2035.

Many of these companies are hoping to capitalize on gen Z’s growing weariness about the devices and social media platforms they grew up with. Nearly 60% of gen Z respondents identified as having a social media addiction in an April poll, and a third of the generation said they had deleted some of those apps, according to a 2025 survey.

The shift has also been driven by growing anger at tech platforms that have left some in gen Z feeling as if they are being exploited for profit.

Gen Z “was basically optimized for dopamine by very smart systems”, said Kenneth Schlenker, 39, a former product marketer at Google and co-founder of Opal.

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