Teenagers today seem to be on their phone too much, often being labelled as obsessed, but how much of this is the fault of the child?

After watching the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ I started to question weather social media companies themselves were to blame.

These apps are designed to be addictive, they use our own psychology against us in order for us to use them more.

These apps are not designed for teens, their fundamental purpose is to have your attention.

These companies use an algorithm to predict your interests. The algorithm doesn’t care about the welfare of a child, the algorithm is just recommending ads you may be interested in.

Research has shown that addiction is far more common in teens – this is because the brain is not fully developed until the age of 27.

Studies also show that addictions that started to develop before the age of 27 are nearly impossible to shift later on in life. These apps are meant to be addictive.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, you can help your child by implementing a screen time limit, using the settings to make the phone screen black and white, so that the phone is less engaging, limit the exposure to tailored ads by blocking cookies on your device and finally by blocking all notifications.

JASMINE KERR

Year 11 Court Fields School