October 22, 2020
Earlier this year, Netflix released the documentary “The Social Dilemma” which explores how social media apps are designed to be addictive.
I know what you’re thinking- everyone knows apps are designed to be addictive. However, the extent to which they are designed to capture as much of the user’s time as possible is extremely disturbing. The documentary particularly focuses on how social media and phone addiction is affecting children.
This New York Times article does a great job at giving a brief overview of what the film covers if you’re interested in learning more about it before watching. We highly recommend all parents take the time to watch it, especially with their children. It is such an eye-opening experience.
At one point in the documentary, a mother, who is sick of her child being addicted to her phone, physically takes it and locks it in a timed safe during dinner. The child proceeds to grab a hammer and break the safe open to get to her phone. This is a great example of how useful parental control apps can be which the film did not mention unfortunately.
Instead of going through the hassle and friction of physically taking phones away, parents can use apps like MMGuardian to lock their child’s phone with the touch of a button. MMGuardian also provides an extensive set of other features such as viewing SMS and social media messages, AI-powered alerts for concerning activity such as predators, suicidal thoughts, drugs, inappropriate pictures, and more, app blocking, web filtering, location tracking, and many others. If you’d like to try out MMGuardian and receive a 14 day free trial, just click the button below!
Consider also joining our Facebook group “Tech-Savvy Parenting” to discuss raising kids in the 21st century with other parents.
