Humanality project helps Catholic students escape screens, engage reality

Across all sectors of society, strange and insane behaviors seem to be accelerating. With AI bursting on the public scene, mental health metrics plummeting across the globe, and the reliability of the media at an all-time low, one wonders how much worse things can get.

As usual, however, hard times call forth great creativity and initiatives to counter the pervading evil.

The newly founded nonprofit Humanality is just such a project. “The main objective of Humanality is to help people discover freedom through an intentional relationship with technology,” says Andrew Laubacher, executive director of Humanality.

Founded by Catholic entrepreneur Justin Schneir and his wife Hope, Humanality’s first instantiation was the “Unplugged Scholarship” at Franciscan University in 2022. “The Humanality Foundation was created for the sole purpose of helping humans engage with reality by gaining control of their digital habits and processes,” Justin said. “We value a life lived fully, a life connected to meaningful engagement with self, other and God.”

The Unplugged scholarship awarded students scholarship money on the condition they gave up their smartphone and started using a “dumbphone”. Over 170 students applied for the initial scholarship. Thirty of the students received the scholarship and took the leap into a life without a smart phone or social media. And many who were interested, but didn’t receive a scholarship, also gave up their phones!

Humanality now has launched clubs at six Catholic universities: Franciscan University, Christendom College, Ave Maria, University of Dallas, Benedictine, and Thomas Aquinas College. “We hope to expand to as many colleges as possible in the coming years,” Andrew explained.

Justin’s idea of encouraging a smartphone-free college experience was sparked by visiting Wyoming Catholic College, where all students are required to give up their phones entirely for the duration of each semester. Andrew explains that “so far there has been an overwhelming and jaw-dropping response to our initiative.” Students and faculty are so aware of the problem with smartphones and digital addictions that just sharing about the Humanality clubs brings an excitement and desire to try to bring this movement to their university.

Andrew explains that there is an incredible amount of data pouring in from many sources regarding how the exponential rise in mental health disorders is related to social media and digital technology. “Johnathan Haidt and others have demonstrated that there is a direct causal link between social media exposure and poor mental health outcomes for boy and girls. Self-harm amongst 10- to 14-year-old girls has quadrupled over the last 10 years. Suicide amongst boys and girls has sky rocked the last twelve years,” he says, referencing the pioneering substack After Babel.

Digital media affects the sexes differently. Andrew notes that women are more affected by social media itself, while men struggle more with video game addiction and pornography, referencing several recent publications on the topic, including Jean Twenge’s book iGen, The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, and Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport.

“These are great sources to begin with that show the reality of what our devices and media platforms are doing to us as a society and across the world,” Andrew says.

Twenge writes:

Technology is not the only thing that makes iGen distinct from every generation before them; they are also different in how they spend their time, how they behave, and in their attitudes toward religion, sexuality, and politics. They socialize in completely new ways, reject once sacred social taboos, and want different things from their lives and careers. More than previous generations, they are obsessed with safety, focused on tolerance, and have no patience for inequality. iGen is also growing up more slowly than previous generations: eighteen-year-olds look and act like fifteen-year-olds used to.

Yet digital technology is responsible for many of these differences. Notes the Humanality website:

The ubiquity of smartphones, with half of U.S. children owning one by age 11, and the surge in social media usage, has led to a concerning decline in happiness, with links to depression, anxiety, and more. Psychosexual development is also at risk, with pornography exposure affecting teen relationships and self-perception. We’re committed to charting a more humane course, helping individuals navigate the modern age without being enslaved by it, and striking a balance that restores the essence of human living.

On the ground, Humanality’s clubs have monthly meetings to share data and science on what phones and social media platforms are doing to us. “This gives the students the why behind the light phones and “dumming” down your smartphone,” Andrew says. Humanality has created a system of levels of media disengagement challenges, such as the “Rebel X mode,” which involves only having a “light phone” and no social media accounts. Other modes are more intense or less, depending on what the student wants to take on.

What then? “Once you have unplugged we invite students to plug into reality. Go on a hike, hang with friends, go outside, read a book and do all these things without your phone. We believe that our phones can be used as tools and can even help share the fact that the people who designed these platforms and devices are not concerned with your wellbeing. Rather, they want your attention, and this is how they make money.” Humanality clubs feature small groups so students can have deeper accountability with each other as they journey through the detox process. At the end of every school year, Humanality sponsors an on-campus concert for the students where the cost of admission for students is simply leaving their phone at the door. “So they get to experience music without a screen!”

One recipient of the Unplugged Scholarship had this to say about his experience: “This semester, having nothing on my phone has done so many good things for me. My screen time has gone down from 7 hours per day to 45 minutes. The semester is over, and I feel a noticeable change. I will be continuing next semester.”

Another says that it has been “an incredible experience” for her, and that she is excited and eager to see how much more she will grow because of it: “It has been quite liberating to not worry so much about my phone, many times I leave it in my room when I go out. It was uncomfortable at first, especially when walking to class or standing alone since I did not have something to preoccupy myself with and instead had to simply stand. However, this has forced me to grow more comfortable with myself in social settings and be more aware of what is happening around me.”

Humanality will be partnering with the Wise phone from TechLess, which will enable the phone to be used more as a tool rather than becoming a slave master. Andrew recommends that the one thing anyone can do right now to improve their control over technology is to learn about how these companies addict you to their platforms. “This will give you the awareness and knowledge to make a plan to create boundaries and lead a more free life and engage reality once again.”

As one unplugged recipient exclaims: “Getting off your phone is getting out of yourself! Life is beautiful – don’t let it pass you by.”