Rebel Human

Please vote for LOOK! You can help get us to the next round so I can pitch for $100K. We have already taken the prize from our first round win and started building our MVP. Our waitlist for LOOK is growing and winning the $100K will help us finish V1 and increase our reach so that teens & parents can start having a healthy relationship with their phones and start increasing their off-screen experiences.

Vote for LOOK here: https://lnkd.in/gnF_vSaA

Why we are leaving FB/IG: We have always been reluctant users, but as a small business, we’ve been told it’s a must. With the growing evidence of the harm FB/IG does to mental health and democracy, we can no longer support them. If you are a small business, artist, or activist who uses them to amplify your message, we aren’t passing judgement.

Our judgement rests entirely on FB/IG- it’s algorithms that harm children (esp. teen girls), sow division, promote disinformation, and undermine democracy.

FB/IG is the most efficient ad platform ever, yet it is called a social networking site. Their $1T value isn’t because of community building, but because of the data it collects on you. The best minds (and AIs) in the world work to use your data to leverage your vulnerability to keep you logged on. They leverage your fear which leads to dangerous polarization, and sparring groups full of contempt. There is no real oversight. Without guidance, the brain will focus on fear. It’s irresponsible to toy with that for profit. We don’t stand by Zuckerberg’s insistence on “free expression” when FB’s algorithms manipulate and tarnish it.

Facebook, you have the money and talent to alter the platforms to connect people around common good. You can sow seeds that could save democracy and encourage mental health. With that much power, FB/Insta has to be held accountable to the public good, to democracy, to truth- not it’s own profit. Until then, we say no more.

While we are away we encourage you to log into your life: fresh air, eye contact, hugs, quiet, creativity, and calm away from social media. Don’t compare your insides with someone else’s outsides. Beauty lives in the complexity, messiness, and raw humanness that we all feel and that’s impossible to convey on FB/IG.

Maybe it’s time for you to log off too. Remember, there was life before social media. Live it.

In any moment you are feeling agitated, anxious, angry, hopeless, or afraid you have the power to SEAC. This is a powerful tool to regain autonomy over your life and it’s a foundational component of our Rebel Human Schools program, now being taught to close to 4,000 high school students.

Stop: press pause on what you are doing, even if that means closing your eyes to stop reading, or standing still if you are walking, or maybe finding a quiet corner to be alone for a moment.

Exhale: squeeze out all the air, then relax your belly and let the air rush back in. remember, shifting your breath is the fastest way to shift how you feel, and starting with the exhale is the best way to recalibrate your breath.

Attend: check in with yourself. notice the physical sensations in your body (tightness in chest or throat, rapid heart beat, butterflies in stomach, fatigue, sweaty palms)—these sensations are giving you helpful information about what you need

Connect: use one of our practices to shift your nervous system and build new neural connections in the brain—or connect by talking with a supportive friend or adult. remember, taking the time to build helpful neural and social connections now will pay dividends in the future.