Gabriela Nguyen got her first smart device when she was nine years old. Growing up in the 2000s — in Silicon Valley no less — she says families often encouraged children to embrace the most advanced technology.

Now, at 24 years old, Nguyen sees how digital dependence affected her ability to connect in real life with others — including during the pandemic when she noticed her life was worse, but not that much worse in isolation. That was one of multiple “cracks” that inspired her to delete all of her social media profiles and inspired her to go offline.

“Technology, especially when you grow up on it, it’s so intertwined with your life that I needed to see the cracks in the different facets of my life,” she says. “If it was just going to be my focus, that wasn’t going to be enough for me

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