Olivia Yokubonis slides into TikTok and Instagram feeds with a gentle warning: you probably can’t recall the video you watched two swipes ago. The 30-second clips, posted under the handle Olivia Unplugged, are designed to jolt viewers out of autopilot and off their phones.
At a Glance
- Yokunis posts disruption videos that rack up millions of views
- She is employed by screen-time app Opal, though branding is nearly invisible on her page
- Research shows most users underestimate their social-media use by roughly 20 minutes per session
- Why it matters: Feeds are engineered to keep users glued; internal interruptions may be one of the few tools that work from inside the platforms
Ethan R. Coleman reported that Yokubonis’ content is part of a growing creator niche that tackles overuse without leaving the apps. Viewers often thank her for the reality check; skeptics leave sarcastic notes about the irony of preaching moderation on the very platforms she critiques.
“People will comment and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, (it’s) ironic that you’re posting.’ And I’m like, ‘Where else am I supposed to find you, Kyle? Outside? You’re not outside. You are here, sitting here,'” she told News Of Los Angeles.
Her approach is subtle. There are no persistent download links, no flashing Opal logos, no coupon codes-just a quick message that the clock is ticking. The restraint is intentional. “People love hearing from people,” she said, pointing to view counts that regularly climb into seven figures.
Ofir Turel, an information-systems-management professor at the University of Melbourne, has spent years measuring social-media habits. In his experiments, participants routinely misjudge session length by double-digit minutes. When shown their actual screen-time logs, many enter “a state of shock” and voluntarily dial back usage, he explained to News Of Los Angeles.
Still, the question lingers: does a mid-feed reminder actually change behavior? Ian A. Anderson, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology, called the tactic fascinating but unproven. Habitual scrollers may register the clip as background noise, he cautioned, especially if attention is already fragmented.
“If they’re paying full attention, I feel like it could be an effective disruption, but I also think there is a degree to which, if you are really a habitual scroller, maybe you aren’t fully engaging with it,” Anderson said to News Of Los Angeles.
The Addiction Label
Whether heavy social-media use qualifies as addiction remains contentious. Researchers agree some people overindulge, yet symptoms such as uncontrollable cravings or physiological withdrawal rarely meet clinical thresholds. Colloquially, the word sticks. Anderson surveyed a representative sample of Instagram users and discovered a mismatch: 18 percent believed they were “somewhat addicted,” 5 percent felt “substantially” hooked, but only 2 percent exhibited symptoms signaling risk.
Believing you’re addicted can backfire. “If you perceive yourself as more addicted, it actually hurts your ability to control your use … and makes you kind of blame yourself more for overuse,” Anderson told News Of Los Angeles.
Light-Touch Interventions
Tiny friction tweaks can shrink usage without heroic willpower, Anderson said:
- Shuffle app icons daily
- Disable push notifications
- Leave phones outside the bedroom
- Charge devices in a separate room overnight
These “light-touch interventions” require minutes to implement yet carve out space for offline life. More committed users can adopt third-party blockers or hardware solutions, though every option still demands initial motivation.
Meet the Anti-Scroll Ecosystem
Cat Goetze, known online as CatGPT, mixes plain-language AI explainers with clips about attention-capture mechanics. After a decade in tech, she concluded that “an army of nerds” is paid solely to extend session length. “It’s not your fault and you’re not going to win this just (through) willpower,” she told News Of Los Angeles.
Her startup, Physical Phones, sells Bluetooth landline handsets that connect to smartphones, nudging owners toward voice calls and away from feeds. Packaging carries the tagline “offline is the new luxury.” Early sales, funded partly by her social audience, signal demand for tools that untether users from glass rectangles.
Goetze doesn’t advocate total abstinence. “If we can get the average screen time down from … three hours to 30 minutes, that is going to be a net positive benefit for that individual and for society,” she said. “I’d love to be the person that they’re watching for those 30 minutes.”
Key Takeaways
- Disruption creators reach audiences inside the very apps they critique, bypassing the need to lure users elsewhere.
- Self-reported addiction exceeds clinically measurable cases, and the belief alone can undercut self-control.
- Simple environmental tweaks-moving apps, silencing pings, bedroom bans-offer measurable reductions in use.
- Startups are monetizing the backlash against endless feeds, hinting at a cultural shift toward intentional tech use.
