‘We’re Not Alone’: Northport Native Launches Mental Health Reminder Project

NORTHPORT, NY — Adam Silverstein was spending time on the apps the way many people in their 20s do — scrolling, reading, watching what rises to the top — when he started noticing something that didn’t sit right. The posts that traveled fastest across his feed didn’t always bring people together. Often, he said, the comment sections turned into battlegrounds.

Silverstein, 27, a Northport native and Northport High School Class of 2016 graduate, said that pattern — along with what he described as widespread loneliness — pushed him to start The Reminder Project, a social-media initiative built around one idea he hopes can cut through the noise: people are loved, they are not alone, and they are stronger when they come together.

“Especially around this time of year, around the holidays, that can be a difficult and challenging time for people who struggle with feelings of loneliness or isolation,” Silverstein told Patch. “When they see other people getting together and being with friends and family, it can be hard for people who don’t feel like they quite have that or want that.”

Silverstein created a handwritten message — what he calls “The Reminder” — and posted it on the initiative’s Instagram and TikTok accounts, @reminderprojectbfe. His goal is for the post to circulate as widely as possible through reposts and shares, the way other viral content does, to promote something calming and connective rather than inflammatory.

“The main part of it is one specific post I made — which is my personal message to the world,” he said. “My goal is to get that post shared as many times as possible. Even just taking that one post and adding it to your story goes a long way.”

The second component, Silverstein said, invites others to create their own reminders and send them in, allowing the message to multiply through different voices and forms — handwritten notes, typed messages, poems, artwork, songs, or anything else someone creates with the intention of helping others feel seen.

Silverstein’s group, Best Feeling Ever, is an online community he started in 2018 to build a safe, positive space focused on mental health, wellness, and authentic connection. He said he first began building the community by drawing in people he knew from school and expanding outward from there. During high school and college, he also started a club called Be The Change, which he said created a space where people felt supported and not judged.

“As I was getting closer to graduating, I was like, ‘Oh, how can I take what I’m doing here and kind of do it on a larger scale?’” he said. “Something that’s not just tied to a specific school, but something that anyone can join from wherever they are.”

Silverstein attended LIU Post and studied social work, completing internships that included working with elementary school students — experience he believes shaped how he thinks about community, support systems, and the quiet ways people carry stress.

Online, though, he said the tone can feel like the opposite of support — especially when engagement becomes the goal.

“I spend a lot of my time on social media, and I noticed that when a post really blows up, you go to the comments section, it’s full of people fighting and trying to attack one another,” he said.

Even so, Silverstein said he hasn’t given up on social media as a tool.

“I’ve always believed that the internet and social media have a great power to bring people together,” he said. “That’s a big part of why I started my community in the first place, because I want to use it for that power — and I do believe that we absolutely can use it that way if we intentionally try to do so.”

He described Best Feeling Ever as having about 30 very active members — the core group that consistently participates and helps behind the scenes — along with others who drop in from time to time.

Much of the community’s organizing happens through Discord and group chats on Instagram and TikTok, which he said function both as planning rooms for projects and as places where people can simply talk, connect, and make friends.

Silverstein said getting the word out has been the biggest challenge so far — the unglamorous grind of trying to build momentum for something positive in online spaces that often reward conflict. He described texting contacts, reaching out to people directly, and consistently posting, with the hope of gaining the traction many viral projects eventually receive.

The project arrives as concerns about social media’s mental health impact — particularly for younger users — are increasingly part of public conversation and public policy. In late December, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will require warning labels on certain platform features associated with prolonged use, including infinite scroll, autoplay, and addictive feeds, when young users encounter those features.

While The Reminder Project is currently anchored online, Silverstein said his longer-term goal is to help people translate digital connection into real-world community — and he hopes 2026 is the year that begins to take shape.

“We want to make it like all-encompassing,” he said. “A hub to get to know more businesses and more organizations around the community.”

For Silverstein, the mission is bigger than one platform or one post. He described it as an attempt to interrupt the feeling many people carry silently — the idea that they’re isolated — and replace it with something more positive.

“At the end of the day, we’re all human beings,” he said. “We all have more in common than we have differences. It starts with that simple reminder that we’re human beings — we’re not alone.”

Learn more: To participate, readers can follow @reminderprojectbfe on Instagram and TikTok, share “The Reminder,” and tag the account with their own reminder creations to be reposted.