(Morgan Fowler/Student Life)

Sophomore Emma Lembke founded the Log Off movement, which encourages teens and young adults to take a critical look at social media.

“I got my first social media account in 6th grade,” sophomore Emma Lembke, the founder of the LOG OFF Movement, said. “No one warned me that [social media] are amplification tools that don’t work to prioritize children’s wellbeing and stability.” 

Lembke testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 14 on the harms of social media to children. As the founder of the LOG OFF Movement, Lembke aims to tackle the complexity of social media and help parents and kids navigate through the inner workings of these apps. 

Lembke originally began this project during a digital advocacy program in the summer of 2020 when she realized the negative impact social media has had on her. From constant exposure to unrealistic body standards and quantified followers, Lembke noticed her mindset starting to change for the worse. “Why do these companies have so much control over me? Why was it that I kept going back?” she said. As Lembke reflected, she started to notice trends in algorithms on social media.

While establishing LOG OFF, Lembke further explored her own complicated relationship with social media. One example Lembke recalled was that after looking up healthy recipes online, she would see advertisements on social media for workout training and appetizer suppressants. The perfect hourglass bodies in the ads led her to conclude that her body was not enough. “To this day, it is still the most harmful experience I’ve had [on social media],” Lembke said. The content locked her into a negative mental state, and disordered thoughts and unattainable body standards haunted her.

Lembke found that much of the research relating social media to mental health had no experimental groups of teenagers and young adults, whose world views and values are the most affected by social media.

LOG OFF enabled a safe space for the youth to express their experiences with social media and allows them to take initiative and start conversations. We can never go back to a time when social media doesn’t exist. [What] we can do is move from parasitic relationships [with social media] into mutualistic ones,” Lembke said. 

Lembke said the name “LOG OFF” means to “mentally log off with our parasitic relationship with tech” and create better norms in terms of its usage. “It’s fun because it plays [on] the extremist nature of social media,” she said. 

These days, LOG OFF is transiting toward a leadership council with over 60 youth advocates from 13 countries, creating online communities with a diverse level of engagement. Lembke is deeply involved with turning their voices into policy changes. She hopes that the movement can “infiltrate media sources and that members can become empowered agents of change.”

Lembke took her next step towards widespread change when she testified in the Senate last month. She describes the experience as one of the most cathartic and memorable moments of my life. “You could sense a shift in the room towards action, not just talking.”

Even though the legislation process can be tedious and slow, Lembke thinks that the complicated process creates a product that is thoroughly thought out and fought over. The Senate showed her how effective legislative action can be, and as a member of Gen Z, Lembke wants to continue to fight for a voice at the table.

Now, Lembke is focused on creating chapters of LOG OFF at different college campuses, starting with WashU. “We have so many great minds and at WashU, I’m open to building and finding the right team,” she said.