Lilia Spiegel, 16, doesn’t use social media. But she’s still surrounded by it.
"All my friends have TikTok, Instagram," she said. "For me, it's kind of hard sometimes because when we hang out or something, they're all on Instagram."
Spiegel is a junior in the Coronado School of the Arts program. When her parents worked for the Semester at Sea study abroad program last fall, she went with them.
"I really felt that social media was hindering friendships around me, and I wanted to see if it was different across different countries," she said.
The result is a documentary called "Low Tech Friend" that includes stories of friendship from young people in Spain, Malaysia, South Africa and Malta. Spiegel’s favorite interview is with a young woman named Danae in Greece.
In the documentary, Danae says she’s noticed the same behavior among teenagers that Spiegel has experienced.
"People were always on their phones," Danae says. "I was like, 'What the heck is going on?'"
Danae’s advice was to invite friends on walks instead of just to a meal.
"Grabbing lunch is a time-limiting thing. You grab lunch and then you leave," she says. "Walks are timeless. You could do a one hour walk, you can do a five hour walk, you can walk forever."
When Spiegel got back home, she turned her camera and microphone toward her Coronado High School peers. One interview in the documentary is with a member of the school’s fishing club.
"That's an activity without phones," Spiegel said. "That's what I've heard with a lot of other people — they really like these activities that kind of force you not to be on your phones."
As school districts consider stricter rules on cell phone use for students, Spiegel said schools need to help students find things to do instead. She said schools could create classes on healthy social media use and more extracurricular options on campus.
"I think in order to get rid of our phones, we need to have something to replace it with," she said.
Spiegel’s advice for teens considering a break from social media?
"Just go on a walk," she said.
"Low Tech Friend" premieres with eight other high school student films at the Coronado Film Festival on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m.
