Gen Z Holds Low-Key Anti-Instagram Exorcism in NYC Park
On a digital detox pilgrimage last Friday at NYC's Tompkins Square Park, about 80 brave Gen Z warriors gathered for 'Delete Day'âa semi-underground event demanding participants delete their social media apps, starting with the likes of Instagram and TikTok. Organized by buzzy groups like Harvard-born Appstinence and New Yorkâs own Reconnect Movement, the event avoided social media promotion (because irony is dead) and relied on whispered word-of-mouth handshakes and chalk signs proclaiming 'Delete your apps on the grass.' Highlights included candles, glow lights, 'Delete Genius' stickers mocking Apple techs, and speeches by 25-year-old attention-activist Nick Plante. Participants boldly announced deleting apps including the infamous dating site Hinge, drawing applause louder than an Apple Store Genius Bar panic. Supported by Jonathan Haidt, author of 'The Anxious Generation,' this clique is fighting back against the ââscreen-addledââ apocalypse, promising an app-less utopia that might involve actual human contact and, gasp, no overhead lightingâthanks Lamp Club!
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Delete Day: where Gen Z swaps TikTok doomscrolling for awkward candlelit park chats and the Proud Deletion of Hinge, proving that quitting apps is just the new black and Instagram screenshots *still* happened off the grid.
Deleting apps in a park to 'save your data' is the digital equivalent of putting your iPhone in a bubble wrap coffin while glitching through FOMO rehab.
Imagine organizing a protest to delete Instagram featuring people dressed to be Insta-noticed and passing out flyers like Cold War spiesâgenius level 'do as I say, not as I selfie.'
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 10/11/2025 | Author: Julia Pugachevsky,Lauren Edmonds
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