The Beginning

My Story

Hi guys,

I’m Elli Jelinek, and I’m a Junior at the John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas. This blog all started with my sacrifice for lent during my sophomore year; social media. I had slowly noticed myself getting so into my phone, and starting to slip away from the real world. I felt as if I needed a change, a literal reality check. My nights were beginning to turn into me sitting in my room, telling myself I would only scroll for ten minutes before doing my homework. Those ten minutes turned to thirty, which turned to an hour, then two and I was completely helpless! I was addicted and I knew it, I just never did anything about it. It was something about the way I could escape from the stress of the real world, and enjoy the distraction I got from it. It was essentially a drug. And so, I decided that for 40 days, I would give up my socials and see what change that brought as a part of my Lental Resolution (Which, if you didn't know, is something I do as a part of my religion 40 days before easter). The first week was hard. It was almost impossible to not grab my phone. There was no easy way out of it, and so I suddenly wanted to be productive to keep my mind off the reel. For the first time, I actually wanted to do homework. I soon saw how much Instagram set me back, and as I was talking to my friends, they agreed with me. But, when I encouraged them to try it with me, they constantly said no, or that they wouldn’t have the willpower to do that! This response of not being able to put the phone down sparked my interest, and made me wonder if we as a generation are going to be so addicted to our screens, that we become dependent on them. I mean already, we are so dependent on them for our news sources, and ways to keep up with the world, that we will believe anything! They practically control us, and we are so oblivious to it. So, I decided I was going to take action. I started to research, and through a class I was taking, developed a guide for addiction that highlighted how much time we give up to social media in our lifetime. And then from that, came this website dedicated to helping teens all over the nation regain their lives without a screen to take it over.