SAN JOSE, Calif. - It’s a concept hard to fathom among many Gen Zers — ditching your smartphone and retiring from social media. But it's what recent Harvard alumna 24-year-old Gabriela Nguyen has fully embraced as she works to help others do the same.

Local perspective:

The Bay Area native grew up in the Silicon Valley, the epicenter of the digital and tech world. She attended Presentation High School in San Jose, a school that identifies technology as "a pathway to success."

Nguyen is part of what’s often referred to as the first generation of "social natives," people born into a world in which social media has always existed.

But around the age of 15, Nguyen developed an awareness that something about this way of life was inherently detrimental to her development, her ability to

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