Meta has agreed to a proposed settlement worth up to $17 billion with a coalition of states over allegations that its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, have harmed children through addictive design. While Meta denies wrongdoing, the historic agreement mandates a daily limit of two hours for users under 18, blocks app access from midnight to 6 a.m., and silences school-hour notifications, pending court approval. This development brings renewed attention to the technology restrictions observed by some traditional communities, such as the Amish and certain Hasidic Jewish groups.
Historically, these communities have been characterized as insular due to their resistance to modern technologies. Documentaries have portrayed their limited engagement with smartphones and the internet as evidence of a backward way of life. Some members of these groups view unrestricted internet access as a threat to their religious practices, opting for filtered computers and 'kosher' phones stripped of features like texting and social media. In some cases, they maintain telephone networks for religious teachings and stories instead of mainstream social media.
However, the same week Meta reached its settlement, a documentary highlighted these Hasidic restrictions, framing them as unusual. The settlement's imposed limits on social media use for minors, including daily time caps and overnight access blocks, echo some of the boundaries previously maintained by these religious groups. Practices once seen as signs of backwardness, such as limiting technology use, are now acquiring secular labels like 'digital wellness' and 'screen hygiene' as mainstream society seeks to establish similar boundaries.
The U.S. Surgeon General's office has identified harm from screen use among children and adolescents as a public health concern, with research linking smartphone and screen use to issues like depression, sleep deprivation, and other adverse health outcomes. A 2026 study in Pediatrics found an association between smartphone ownership at age 12 and higher odds of depression, obesity, and insufficient sleep, though causation could not be definitively established by the observational study.
This situation prompts a re-evaluation of how society adopted technology. Unlike traditional communities that, according to one observer, prioritized asking what technology would do to them before adopting it, modern America largely focused on the benefits, later addressing the negative consequences. The widespread availability of smartphones to children, designed to capture attention, has led to significant societal challenges.
While acknowledging the dangers of isolation, such as suppressing dissent or limiting access to information and opportunities, proponents of intentional technology use distinguish between isolation and restraint. They highlight how communities like the Amish preserve face-to-face communal life and manual work, and how Hasidic communities center life around family, synagogue, schools, and religious study. The concept of Shabbat, a weekly period of forced unavailability, is presented as a radical form of freedom in a hyperconnected world.
The lesson derived is not to abandon modernity or technology, which enables work, learning, and relationships unimaginable to previous generations. Instead, it suggests establishing a hierarchy of values—family, faith, community—and then determining technology's appropriate place. Practices that were once viewed as restrictive are now seen as protective, preserving essential aspects of life that can be overshadowed by constant digital engagement. The focus is shifting from questioning what people without smartphones are missing to understanding what they are preserving.