It has barely been a year since Snapchat joined Facebook in a movement to help people better manage the amount of time they spend in the social networking apps they develop. Snapchat added the ability to silence notifications from certain conversation and redesigned their app to be more about time with your friends and less about time in the app. Yesterday, however, CED Evan Spiegel announced their new focus on Social Gaming and several new original video series citing a new way to keep young people in their app even longer.
The games featured you and your friends’ Bitmojis. In them you play silly games that include pool toy fights, field goal kicking, and keeping your Bitmoji atop a spinning record as your friend DJs for you. In the announcement Spiegel says “On Snapchat, you’re free to be you, with your real friends. As we use the internet more and more in our daily lives, we need a way to make it a bit more human.” Apparently the idea is that as social beings, we need to hang out and since we are all spending so much time on our smartphones, Snapchat wants to be the place your kids hang out in.
What Parents Should Know
I have said it several times before, we can’t blame tech companies for wanting people to spend time on their software, that’s how they make their money. Quotes from this announcement boast of a place that people can be themselves, obviously what they truly are creating is a place where we can spend more time, see more ads, and make Snapchat and its shareholders more money. No matter what social media companies say about time well spent, privacy, or security they are protecting their bottom line. They have shareholders that they must impress with the numbers so that’s what shapes their decisions. Knowing this helps us remember that the responsibility for healthy tech use falls to users, and our kids’ tech health is the responsibility of parents.
Talk to your kids about the amount of time they spend on social media. Don’t allow them on social media that is rated higher than their age. Teach them not to expose sensitive information like their phone number or the name of their school on these apps. Finally, use some sort of filter or time management software to help you enforce your standards. Parents are the first line of defense against the dangers of unlimited and unmonitored internet use. We have to take on that responsibility because nobody else truly will.
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