Authored by Azalea G.
Member, Digital Wellness Lab 2025-26 Student Advisory Council
Over the past months in the Digital Wellness Lab, I’ve gotten to enjoy exploring how our generation interacts with technology, from personal social media habits to the broader factors shaping digital experiences. For my final blog post project, I wanted to reflect on what we’ve covered in the Lab by speaking with someone who actively works in this field. Based on my experience leading seminars for middle school students about how to accurately express their tone in online interactions, I chose to interview Riz Vazir, Founder and CEO of Scroll by Choice, an organization focused on helping people regain control over their screen time.
During our virtual conversation, I asked five key questions about how students, families, and schools can navigate today’s digital environment, highlighting the central theme of this piece: the challenge isn’t in accepting or rejecting this new technology, but in using it with intention.
Question 1: How do you (Riz) define the core mission of Scroll by Choice?
Answer: That’s a great question. The idea of scroll by choice, as the name indicates, is very much anchored to personal agency or personal choice. Our mission has always been to help people reclaim control over screen time. It’s not to reduce screen time, not to eliminate screentime, not to get to two hours or whatever number of hours people prescribe for screen time. The goal is, how can I make sure that you don’t just stand in a coffee shop line, and mindlessly pick up your phone, open an app, and not even realize how you got there.
Question 2: Tell me a little bit about your recent work with the Mercer Island School District’s phone-free initiative.
Answer: We started this not knowing who might need it and who might value it. We started working with the Mercer Island School District (MI Phone-Free Schools) and they immediately got the idea. There’s still work to be done to educate people on how to actually use their devices in a way that puts them in control. The nuance that the Mercer Island School District really got is that there’s very little value in me talking to kids directly if they go home and don’t see their parents modeling the correct behavior. So the Mercer Island School District program was really targeted at parents.
Question 3: When you implemented these programs with teens and tweens, what is the most surprising thing you’ve learned about how our generation actually views the ‘attention economy’?
Answer: I’ll take this one back to Gen Alpha, the generation that hasn’t even made it into high school yet. When I was speaking with them recently, I heard terms like “social media is stupid” which is a sentiment I’m now even seeing in high schoolers and early college students, where they see it as more of a ‘necessary evil’ versus a platform they can really thrive on.
Question 4: What are two or three concrete steps that individual schools can take right now to create a healthier digital environment for students?
Answer: The first thing to understand is we can’t just read a book or blog and understand how every classroom in America is feeling. The truth is, that is not the case. Every classroom in America today and the students that sit in it are trying to make the best of what they have in front of themselves. So, the tools are one part of the narrative, then there’s whatever the stressors are on the students at the moment. It would be foolish to completely integrate or get rid of EdTech (educational technology) just because it hasn’t worked for some classrooms, when it has worked so well for others. So, I think the first step is to take stock of where you are and then work your way from there.
Question 5: Right now, it feels like a lot of schools are either completely banning AI or just ignoring the fact that we’re all using it. You’ve warned against giving kids open access without guidance. So what is the middle ground? What specific rules or frameworks should schools actually be giving us?
Answer: The AI platforms right now are trying to engage their users by making their products ‘sticky’ so that you become loyal to a particular version of generative AI. Because of this, I think in terms of the middle ground, the first step is to become smart about the business model behind each of these companies, because they are nuanced and they’re all slightly different. It has less to do with the tech and much more to do with what the company that’s providing the tech wants you to do. Talking about this with your family or at school can also be a helpful step.
After reading this post, I hope you can see the impact of AI usage in the classroom from a new perspective. As Riz states in his responses to my questions, the right answers to points about integration of these new tools are complicated, and they are not to fully ignore or ban these technologies, but it is also not to wholeheartedly accept them and mandate them in every classroom. Balance is as important in this situation as it is anywhere, and the wider perspective people can get on this topic, the better we will be able to handle creating regulations as an education community.
Azalea G. is a member of the Digital Wellness Lab’s 2025-2026 Student Advisory Council, and is currently a high school freshman in Seattle, Washington.
The author of this article is a young person who has been engaging with the Digital Wellness Lab about topics of young people’s safety and wellbeing within digital environments. Here at the Lab, we welcome different viewpoints and perspectives. However, the opinions and ideas expressed here do not necessarily represent the views, research, or recommendations of the Digital Wellness Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital, or affiliates.