Why marketing anti-social media products on social media works

By Bella Graham

As someone who grew up as a digital native, and part of the first generation to do so, I’ve heard “the phones are bad,” “your generation is just wasting your lives away online,” or “thank goodness social media wasn’t around when I was a teenager,” practically my entire life. 

Personally, I’m deeply grateful I grew up in the era of technology when I did. I used early versions of Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, Musical.ly (now TikTok) and learned how to navigate it. But it hadn’t reached the form it has today: a honed in algorithm to facilitate peak digital addition, and platforms littered with AI content that’s barely discernable from human-made work. 

The online ecosystem has done nearly a complete 180, from being a tool to an enemy and back to being a tool again. My older relatives scroll on reels and are fervent proponents of AI more than anyone I know my age. It seems those same relatives were right all along — phones really are the problem.

According to the National Institute of Health, “smartphones have created a new form of dependence… an increasing number of people rely on their smartphones to help them pass the time.” Furthermore, that dependence can lead to psychological and physiological issues which experts call smartphone addiction. That addiction resembles that of a substance addition — compulsive use, reward-seeking and involvement of the brain’s reward circuit. Social media, intentionally designed to activate dopamine pathways in the brain (that reward circuit), reaches the heart of that problem.

There have even been lawsuits around the world to keep young people under a certain age off of social media. Australia has a ban for under-16s to be on social media, and companies like Meta have come under fire from Congress over data privacy concerns and child safety. The world is waking up, and turning worry into action through legislation. But we as individuals are able to take action as well. 

Enter the slow-tech/anti-tech product sector.

Products like Brick, Evora Watch, BePresent, and more focus their marketing strategies (which is done heavily on social media), on taking back your time, living an analogue life, and minimizing distractions. 

“EVORA exists to help you reclaim your time.”

“Take back your time to do more of what matters”

“Beating big-tech at their own game.”

While it seems contrary to primarily focus on social media marketing when your product is fundamentally designed to keep you off of it, it works. 

All of these companies meet people where they’re at: online. It would be naive to assume that you could only do in-person marketing and assume that you’d reach the same audience. By ensuring that potential consumers are seeing their product online, it’s catching them in the act of spending too much time on social media, making them conscious about it, and inspiring them to change, all within one ad. 

And their slogans, as seen above, resonate. I do want to reclaim my time. I do want to beat big-tech at their own game. And so far, we haven’t been able to.  

Even though the products are intentionally encouraging you to get off the platform where the brand initially reached you, I think that only makes these products’ allure stronger. Calling people out in the act through advertising makes the brand feel tangible and caring as an entity not afraid to hold you accountable (which is the type of tough love we welcome when it comes to getting off social media). In turn, it cultivates brand loyalty for a brand that feels like it has your back.