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Time to Refuse: The Gen Z Tech Resistance

On Octboer 10, 2025 at 6:00pm in Tompkins Square Park, a group of Gen Z healthy-tech advocates gathered for what is called a “Delete Day”. It’s an event where young people will join one another in collectively deleting one social media account, a step towards “reclaiming life in the real world.” The event is being put on by a team of Gen Z’ers behind the movement, titled, “Time to Refuse.” See their website for some more information on the event itself, as well as the motivation behind it.


Information for Delete Day in NYC
Information for Delete Day in NYC

There are sobering stories from young people about what it was/is like to grow up on the internet and to grow up with social media and devices incessantly beckoning you away from reality and the present moment. Rather than go through that, you can read an intimate portrait on what that experience was like from Freya India, one of the event organizers, here.

What’s most odd about the past twenty years or so, since mainstream adoption of smartphones and social media, is this idea that young people are “overprotected in the real world and abandoned online.” This video, shared in one of our previous posts is comical, but paints an accurate picture of the environment many young people face when inside the four walls of their bedrooms and given unfettered access to smartphones and the internet.



So, what will it take for us to reimagine life on the internet? To reimagine the way in which we interact with the devices that have come to dominate our time and attention.


This event is further proof that people are simply exhausted and fed up with the current attention economy paradigm and smartphone dynamic. Almost every app created on our smartphones has the same goal in mind: to maximize time-on-screen. Just look at our post last week on OpenAI’s recent AI video social app. It’s just one among many apps designed to pull people away from everyday life and into their screens. As the people behind the Delete Day event write on their page:

Since the introduction of social media at crucial developmental ages, to lockdowns that enforced the alienating use of digital workspace platforms, we have been raised in a world hellbent on maximizing online engagement. This convenience has cost us a commodified existence. We knew nothing else but to hand over our lives to tech companies. We have given up our creativity, privacy, and our humility. They manipulated our childhoods, but we’re here to reclaim our future.

That’s a powerful call-to-action from these young people. And we’re here for it. Recent data backs up their frustration: in a survey of over 1,000 Gen Z adults, nearly half wish TikTok and X/Twitter had never been invented, with 60% saying social media has a negative impact on society. Despite spending an average of five hours daily on these platforms, 37% report it has harmed their emotional health1. It’s certainly hard to wade through this topic and not feel a sense of agony and pessimism about the state of things in tech. But that is where we at SLEKE are hoping to step in and play a hopeful role.


Another youth group taking on the idea of predatory tech is Design It For Us. On their home page, they say, “The status quo is not working. Marketed for connection and weaponized for profit, tech is no longer designed for us. We must take on Big Tech and realize a better future online and off.” A driving force behind this movement is that tech is designed to actively exploit us rather than assist us. To actively undermine our critical faculties and our attention span rather than deepening our knowledge and assisting us in our real-world responsibilities and aspirations.


From the Design It For Us website, here.
From the Design It For Us website, here.

Again, this is where we hope SLEKE can step in and play a role. SLEKE offers Users a life with a device that is, above all things, a tool to help you facilitate your every day responsibilities while eliminating the common distracting elements of current iterations of the smartphone.


In our early data gathering, SLEKE phone Users average less than an hour per day on device. This is compared to between 3 to 5 hours for average smartphone users2. It’s a massive difference and the reason behind it is quite simple. Through our intentionally designed OdysseyOS, we are just as concerned with what to omit as what to include. There are no infinite feeds on the SLEKE phone. There is no social media, no internet browser to get lost down rabbit holes. Basically, there are no exploitative entities allowed on the SLEKE phone. If an app has been created to monetize your attention, you can count on it not being on our device.



For Gen Z, we do think the SLEKE phone can be an awesome alternative device to the iPhone. We will continue to build our ethos as a brand that empowers the User to get out and “Do Cool Stuff” in the real world. As a brand that embodies a firm set of values and boundaries. And not just young people, but adults and parents as well. Our User base already ranges from the young to the old. But our founders are young millennials, so they understand the plight of young people who wish they had an alternative way of interacting with the world through their smartphones. In the words of our founders:

We designed The Phone to be a tool for freedom - a way to reclaim mental space and enable us to engage in life’s adventures without digital distractions. There’s a sunset outside your window right now. A friend you’ve been meaning to call. A hobby you “don’t have time for”. The SLEKE philosophy isn’t about shaming screen time—it’s about making room for the moments that truly light you up.The philosophy behind “Do Cool Stuff” is a rallying cry to get out there and live life on your own terms. Life is undeniably beautiful, and we want to help you experience it without any filters. Real-life experiences, genuine connections, and meaningful hobbies make every day worth living. So go ahead: step outside, embrace what you love, and do it wholeheartedly. After all, the world is waiting for you to discover it, one cool moment at a time.

We continue to reference the fact that there is a palpable movement occurring right now. People are ready for change and ready for something different as it pertains to their relationship with tech. We’re just one amongst a bunch of cool creators attempting to answer this call.


Please check us out and give us a shot to see if you are someone who is ready for change.

As always,


Do Cool Stuff.


~SLEKE.


What We’re Reading and Watching:


Renewing the brain through learning by Gloria Mark, who we’ve highlighted here before, explores how learning new skills physically reshapes our brains by increasing gray and white matter. This demonstrates the power of neuroplasticity. Specifically, Mark contrasts the brain-building benefits of deliberate practice and challenge with the mental stagnation that comes from passive screen time. This is an inspiring piece that shows us that learning can be continuous throughout life! Also, the SLEKE phone pairs nicely with this philosophy in the sense that it will help you avoid that passive screen time and pursue something real instead.


Time to Refuse by Freya India at After Babel about the “Time to Refuse” movement. It’s a powerful call-to-action. She is urging young adults to reclaim their humanity and become the generation that saves childhood for those who come after them.


What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones from After Babel, is relevant as it relates to the idea that young people are “overprotected in the real world and abandoned online”. Based on a Harris Poll survey of over 500 children ages 8-12, kids overwhelmingly prefer unstructured, unsupervised in-person play with friends. It’s an essay that was originally published in The Atlantic and the authors argue that if we want kids off their phones, we need to give them back some independence and freedom.


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