In a time when social media gets a bad rap, a budding tech phenom plans to change that
Sitting at a table with all his Apple devices in reach, Josh taps in passwords and ID codes.
He logs into his self-built app—named Tacle—to peruse posts and pics from friends. That is, until an alert pops up on the screen.
Have you found what you’re looking for yet?
“When you scroll through 60 posts on Tacle, that’s when you hit a breakpoint,” explains Josh, a grade 12 student at London Christian High (LCH). “Getting interrupted makes you take notice of how long you’ve been on social media.”
Technology and faith
For Josh, exploring the effects of social media is part of his Capstone course, the last class of LCH’s Christian perspective core.
Ironically, he watched reams of YouTube videos to create the app, falling into rabbit hole after rabbit hole.
“Social media is like a slot machine. You keep feeding it coins, hoping the next one will give you what you want,” adds Josh, who started building Tacle in 2024 with help from friends and AI (mostly to fix bugs).
During the research portion of his Capstone project, he found studies on the effects of social media on brain activity. One described how constant scrolling increases levels of dopamine, a.k.a. the ‘feel-good neurotransmitter.’
“When you’re on social media, the rush of finding something good gives you a boost of dopamine,” he says, “and as you keep going, you’re looking for the next great post…then your dopamine levels rise and your brain craves more, becoming a cycle.”
Josh shows the opening screen for the app he created
“By scrolling through social media, you miss seeing everything God created. Always looking at a rectangle of expensive glass in front of your face, you only get a peek of the outside world. You never fully see it for yourself.” - Josh, Grade 12
Negative and positive
Through Capstone, this budding tech entrepreneur is applying his digital know-how to build healthier connections.
“Social media is an idol in many people’s lives. I’m trying to push against that with this app and give users a more positive experience,” says Josh, adding he jots down ideas about new features to include in the app.
“Any of us can easily jump into the latest craze on social media and think nothing of it…until we see what it’s doing to us. What we find is not always good.”
