About

Our Mission

Social media isn't just a tool anymore. It's the environment — and most people don't even notice the air they're breathing.

— Greg Harline, Founder

SocialMediaPlague is a movement dedicated to exposing the harmful effects of social media on individuals, families, and society. We believe these platforms erode attention, distort relationships, and damage mental well-being. We advocate protecting children from social media entirely and encourage adults to consider complete abandonment as the preferred first-line solution. Our mission is simple: help people reclaim real life.

01 HONEST COVERAGE

We call it how we see it. No platform partnerships that compromise our editorial independence. No sponsored content disguised as journalism. If we take a position, we defend it with evidence.

02 COMMUNITY FIRST

This isn’t a media company with an audience. It’s a community that produces media. Every editorial decision starts with what our readers, listeners, and supporters actually need to know.

03 BUILT TO LAST

We’re building for the long game — not the viral moment. Every article, episode, and product is made with the intention of still mattering five years from now, not just five days.

Mission Statement

SocialMediaPlague exists to expose the harms of social media, challenge its normalization, and inspire individuals, families, and society to reclaim their attention, freedom, and humanity.

We believe social media has evolved far beyond a simple communication tool. It has become a powerful system of distraction, addiction, manipulation, and psychological harm—one that increasingly undermines mental health, meaningful relationships, childhood development, and human flourishing.

Our mission is to educate the public about these harms, advocate for stronger protections for children, and encourage complete abandonment of social media as the preferred first-line solution for people of all ages.

We stand for a world where attention belongs to people—not algorithms.

A world where relationships are built in real life, not measured in followers.

A world where children are protected from addictive digital systems.

A world where human worth is never reduced to likes, views, or engagement.

We seek to build a growing movement of people who choose presence over distraction, depth over validation, and freedom over dependence.

We are not anti-technology.
We are anti-manipulation.
We are anti-addiction.
We are anti-exploitation.

We believe life becomes richer when people spend less time scrolling and more time living—more time with family, friends, nature, work, creativity, faith, health, and genuine human connection.

SocialMediaPlague is more than a critique. It is a call to action. It is a cultural resistance movement. It is an invitation to walk away from the digital plague and return to real life.

Our Team

Who We Are

Greg Harline

Founder & Editor-in-Chief

Media critic, brand strategist, and the mind behind Social Media Plague. Writing about digital culture since 2018.

Sam Rivera

Senior Staff Writer

Technology journalist with a focus on platform policy, algorithmic systems, and the intersection of tech and democracy.

Marcus Webb

Culture Editor

Pop culture analyst and social critic covering trends, movements, and the way internet culture reshapes identity.

Asha Patel

Podcast Producer

Award-winning audio producer and behavioral researcher. Brings the science of attention and persuasion to every conversation.

The Movement

SocialMediaPlague is a movement dedicated to exposing one of the most destructive forces of the modern era.

We believe social media is not merely a neutral tool that is occasionally misused. We believe it is fundamentally harmful to human flourishing.

Its business model is built on capturing attention, maximizing engagement, and exploiting human psychology for profit. In that pursuit, it often undermines mental health, weakens relationships, distorts self-worth, fragments attention, and erodes the quality of everyday life.

What began as a promise of connection has increasingly become a system of addiction, distraction, comparison, manipulation, and dependency.

At SocialMediaPlague, we reject the widespread assumption that social media is an unavoidable part of modern life.

We believe human attention is among the most valuable resources on earth.
We believe attention should belong to individuals—not algorithms.
We believe technology should serve humanity, not manipulate it.
We believe meaningful relationships matter more than followers.

Our position is clear:

Social media is fundamentally harmful to human flourishing, and complete abandonment should be the preferred first-line solution for people of all ages—including adults—while children should be protected from exposure entirely.

Walking Away Entirely

This belief places us outside the mainstream conversation. Most people ask how to make social media safer. We ask a different question: What if the healthiest solution is walking away entirely?

We believe society has dramatically underestimated the scale of social media’s harm.

Children are particularly vulnerable. Young minds should not be shaped by systems engineered to maximize compulsive engagement.

For All Ages

This movement is also about helping adults reclaim their lives.

To walk away from social media is not to disconnect from life. It is to reconnect with what matters most.

More presence.

More clarity.

More peace.

We envision a world where people spend less time scrolling and more time living.

More time outdoors

More time with family

More time with friends

SocialMediaPlague exists to challenge cultural assumptions, raise awareness, provide resources, and inspire action. This is more than a website. It is a movement.

A growing number of people are beginning to ask whether social media has taken far more than it has given. We believe that question deserves serious attention.

The Evolution of The Plague: Our Journey

What began in 2022 as a personal blog with a single essay exploring how TikTok was reshaping our understanding of celebrity—attracting just 300 readers in its first week—has rapidly evolved into a powerful digital movement.

By 2023, we expanded our voice with the launch of The Plague Podcast, which garnered 10,000 downloads on its very first episode and helped our newsletter grow to 5,000 subscribers. The momentum only accelerated in 2024 when our first official merchandise drop sold out within 48 hours, transforming our digital presence into a physical identity and proving the brand meant something far beyond the screen.

Now, in 2026, we are taking our biggest step yet by launching an all-new platform that seamlessly brings content, commerce, and community together. With 52,000 loyal subscribers and 1.2 million monthly readers, our vision has fully materialized, and the plague continues to spread on.