Introducing and Congratulating this Year’s LookUp Innovator Challenge Awardees!

How do we use social media as a tool? First, we have to understand our purpose for using social media. Is it to interact with friends? Is it to gain an audience? Is it to find an online space where you feel safe to express yourself? Whatever the reason may be, the first and most crucial step is to understand why.

Mark, if you’re reading this, let us at LookUp hold the megaphone to the young voices you should hear…

Some aspects of “the new internet” sound compelling: for instance, “teleportation,” “connection,” and “reducing my carbon footprint” - sign me up! But as recent history has shown us, a healthy human psyche, both of the individual and the collective, consistently plays out at odds with the corporate values that profit big tech - “move fast and break things.”

I have a 13-year-old sister named Kohen. She’s always been mindful when it comes to balancing her screen time with her everyday tasks. She’s responsible, conscientious about how much time she interacts on social media, and observant of what’s truly important.

It was in mid-2020 when I realised something was not okay with me. I was unable to keep track of time. Most -nights, just before bed, I would find myself rubbing my head, thinking that one more day was wasted without anything productive happening.

Social media is growing an importance in people’s daily routine. According to a survey by Global Social Media research in August 2020, 3.96 billion people in the world are using social media in 2020. More than 85 percent of the total youth population, ages 15-29 years old, are using one or multiple social media platforms across the globe.

Slight levels of paranoia in societies have been proven to be an evolutionary benefit if properly prioritized and managed to alert a risk. We live under distributed and centralized data processors that are fed by the sacrifice of our autonomy, privacy and, to some extent, our individuality as algorithms are artifacted in order to have political and commercial power over our individual choices.

As I sit here with the thought of graduation looming over me, over a year later reflecting on my time spent in this dystopian and mundane pandemic world we were all forced into, I can’t help but acknowledge how fortunate I feel to have found a community such as LookUp.

How many times in a day have you found yourself looking at your mobile but not really sure why you started in the first place? How many times you go on to your favourite app to search for a video, which you do find, but end up getting stuck in a vortex of video recommendations from which you cannot just walk away?

The technology in our lives can be so helpful; it has literally changed the world. Communication systems are so mind blowing these days that you can be connected with the world 24/7. But this makes me so agitated because it prevents me from concentrating on things fully. What if there is an important email that needs my immediate attention? A text I might have that’s urgent. Is someone calling me and not able to reach me? Have I put my phone on silent by mistake? All these thoughts constantly distract me. It feels like I am forced to be alert, and active all the time.

We live in a world where fake news is expanding 6X faster than the truth. Advertisers are the customers and the users are the product being sold. And it’s free. You’re being sold every single day.

Let’s see the full picture.

Growing up, everyday technology use has looked the same—mindless hours spent on addictive technology like social media, video games, Netflix, and so on. Living a life distracted by technology has come with many negative side effects, but it took a pandemic for me to appreciate the value of my time and to truly want something better

The pinnacle of my self-awareness, social-awareness, and motivation to make a difference initialized during lockdown. I lost access to an assortment of activities, especially socializing with my friends which gravitated me toward my phone.

According to CNN, teenagers spend, on average, 7 hours a day on their screens. Most of us already knew this shocking statistic but my concern is the mass amount of time spent on social media, the true beast causing the widespread issues in our society. You can always get more money, but you can never get more time; it is precious.

“If not me then who, if not now then when?”

This quote, recited by Emma Watson at the HeforShe Summit, was clearly exemplified during the 2021 LookUp Innovator Showcase, I attended this past week…

The Summit was truly an example of youth leading and inspiring youth. From startups to TED Talks, these young leaders are already taking action and creating change…

In our transient world, technology is redefining our human experience. Apps that are connecting friends over thousands of miles are simultaneously bringing nations to the brink of war…

In order to maintain relationships throughout quarantine my friends and I would schedule weekly zoom calls that would consist of different games, talking to one another about how we were feeling emotionally/ mentally…