A Teen Fighting Screen Addiction (with Atiksh Bhan)

Fifteen-year-old and co-founder of Lookupp, Atiksh Bhan, remembers when life was better. He and his friends would spend their afternoons biking, exploring the woods and playing games outside. But then, smartphones came along. =Instead of adventures, they’d spend their time sitting around, scrolling through TikTok. "We’d be huddled around one phone, looking over someone’s shoulder. It just wasn't fun anymore," Atiksh says. And even though they were ‘connected’ through technology, he felt lonelier than ever. Atiksh and his brother only had basic flip phones, but they started to notice a shift in their peers who had smartphones: increasing anxiety, depression and eating disorders. Adding phones to typical teen dilemmas, like breakups and friend drama, was like throwing gasoline on a fire. Determined to make a change, they created LookUpp – an app that rewards you for staying off your phone when you’re with people you care about. The longer your screen is off, the more points you earn. And they’re teaming up with parents, communities, and local businesses to translate points into real-life rewards. Tune in to hear directly from Atiksh, a teen navigating the digital age, as he and Nicki from Scrolling 2 Death talk about rebuilding connections, before it’s too late.