Refusal Without Exit: De-Influencing, Non-Posting Coordination, and Youth Resistance to the “Anxious Generation” Narrative

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 7: The Role of Digital Platforms in the Practice and Study of Movements: The Case of the U.S.

Abstract

Public and policy discourse increasingly characterizes young people as an “anxious generation,” overwhelmed by social media platforms and in need of individual-level interventions such as digital detox, screen limits, or abstention. This framing positions youth as passive recipients of technological harm and obscures the ways they actively interpret, negotiate, and resist platform power. This paper examines two emergent social media practices: (1) de-influencing and (2) non-posting/non-geotagging coordination within travel content communities. This examination frames the aforementioned as collective strategies that complicate narratives of anxiety and disengagement. Rather than exiting platforms, young creators involved in these practices remain visibly present while refusing key norms of engagement, visibility, consumption, and disclosure. The paper argues these practices constitute forms of refusal without exit: tactical, collectively intelligible interventions within platform economies that recalibrate visibility, labor, and responsibility. In doing so, they challenge dominant accounts of youth media use that frame well-being primarily through individual self-regulation and psychological vulnerability. Instead, de-influencing and non-posting coordination reflect high levels of platform literacy, ethical reasoning, and collective boundary-making within attention economies. By foregrounding these practices, the paper contributes to youth and digital sociology by reframing young people not as passive subjects of platform harm but as active participants in shaping the ethical contours of online visibility.

Author

• Theresa Ann Hunt, New Jersey Institute of Technology