Why Elevate Youth Services Stepped Away from Social Media and Why Recent Events Only Reinforce That Decision
Almost a year ago, Elevate Youth Services made the intentional decision to step away from social media.
At the time, the decision may have seemed unusual. In a world where organizations are expected to constantly post, promote, engage, and grow their digital presence, choosing to pull back felt countercultural. But for us, it was never about avoiding visibility. It was about alignment.
As an organization working directly with youth, mental health, identity development, and healing, we could no longer ignore the growing contradiction between our mission and the environments many social media platforms create for young people.
This week, that concern was reinforced in a major way.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Meta’s appeal in Vermont’s social media addiction lawsuit, allowing the state’s case against Instagram and Facebook to move forward. Vermont alleges that Meta knowingly designed addictive features that exploit the neurological and psychological vulnerabilities of young users.
The lawsuit is part of a growing national reckoning around the role social media plays in youth mental health. Courts across the country are increasingly examining whether platforms intentionally use features like infinite scrolling, push notifications, and algorithmic reinforcement to maximize engagement at the expense of emotional wellbeing.
For organizations like ours, these conversations are not abstract.
We see firsthand what young people are carrying:
anxiety rooted in constant comparison
pressure to perform identity online
disrupted sleep and attention
fear of missing out
cyberbullying
emotional dependence on validation metrics
isolation despite constant connection
Social media itself is not inherently evil. Many young people find community, creativity, education, and expression online. But the growing body of evidence, and now legal scrutiny, suggests that some platforms may be intentionally engineered to keep users, especially adolescents, engaged in ways that are psychologically harmful.
When Elevate stepped away from social platforms, we did so because we wanted to model something different.
We wanted to prioritize:
real-world connection over algorithmic reach
presence over performance
relationship over branding
healing over engagement metrics
We also recognized something difficult but important: organizations serving youth cannot credibly speak about emotional wellness while simultaneously depending on systems increasingly accused of undermining it.
That does not mean we are anti-technology or anti-connection. It means we believe intentionality matters.
Young people deserve environments that do not monetize insecurity.
They deserve spaces where their worth is not measured in likes, streaks, or views.
They deserve adults and organizations willing to ask harder questions, even when those questions are inconvenient.
The recent Supreme Court decision does not determine guilt. But it does signal that these concerns are serious enough to move through the highest levels of the legal system.
For Elevate Youth Services, our decision last year was never about making a statement against any one company. It was about making a statement for youth.
And today, that decision feels more important than ever.
