2027: let's take back the internet — a year without social media?
What if we collectively decided that 2027 would be the year we stepped back, unplugged and reconsidered our relationship with technology?
And what if we invited the next generation to help us design something better?
It's not just Meta. Google and other technology companies crawl websites, collect information, index content and process enormous amounts of data. All of this requires infrastructure, electricity and water.
Our digital lives have a physical footprint, whether we think about it or not.
Somewhere along the way, we became the product.
We wait online for government services. We navigate endless automated menus, answer questions for bots, get transferred from one automated system to another, and sometimes struggle to reach an actual human being.
We've allowed convenience to become dependency.
Our phones have become alarm clocks, cameras, televisions, libraries, shopping malls, entertainment centres, banking machines and, for many, our primary connection to the outside world.
But what has it cost us?
A proposal for 2027: boycott social media
What if we collectively took a year off?
No Facebook. No Instagram. No TikTok. No X. No endless YouTube scrolling. No feeding algorithms with our time, attention, photographs, personal information and daily activities.
What if we started taking our lives back?
We could begin with an hour, a day, a week or a month. See how it feels. Go as long as we can. If we return, perhaps we take another break.
Read a book. Make art. Go for a walk. Visit a neighbour. Write a letter. Spend time with children. Learn something new. Support local businesses. Rediscover the things we used to do before smartphones occupied every spare moment.
This isn't about rejecting all technology. It's about questioning our dependence on it and deciding what deserves our attention.
A shout-out to the kids: design a better world
We want to hear from young people.
You are growing up in a world where your attention is constantly being competed for, where your personal information has commercial value and where so much of childhood happens through a screen.
You don't have to accept that this is how the future must look.
What would technology look like if it were designed around human well-being, privacy, creativity, education and the environment?
What would a healthier internet look like?
What would you keep? What would you change? What would you shut down? What would you invent?
Perhaps the next generation can help us rethink what progress really means.
Reflective questions
- When was the last time you went an entire day without checking your phone?
- How much of your daily screen time is genuinely necessary?
- Do social media platforms improve your relationships, or sometimes replace real-life connections?
- How much personal information are you willing to exchange for free online services?
- Have you considered the electricity and water required to maintain our digital world?
- What would happen to your mental health if you took a month away from social media?
- Could you reconnect with friends and family without relying on Facebook or Instagram?
- Should governments and public services always provide a way to reach a real human being?
- What would you miss if social media disappeared tomorrow? What would you be relieved to lose?
- If you could redesign the internet for the next generation, what would you change first?
A different kind of progress
We have spent years being told that everything must become faster, smarter, more connected and more automated.
But perhaps it's time to ask whether more is actually better.
We need technology that serves people, not people who spend their lives serving technology.
We need privacy, independent websites, human connections, accessible public services and a digital world that considers its environmental costs.
2027: less scrolling, less surveillance, less consumption. More living.
Let's stop playing along without asking questions.
And let's give the kids an opportunity to design something better.
What if the biggest technological breakthrough of 2027 was learning when to switch it off?
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