Context · Social Media
A social feed has no bottom. There's no last post and no end of the episode, nothing that ever tells you you're done, so your kid keeps going long past where they meant to stop. When they have a hard time putting it down, that's the feed doing what it was built to do. Grown-ups have a hard time putting it down too.
Why this matters for your kid
These feeds work like a slot machine. Every so often something really good shows up, and you never know which post it'll be, so you keep scrolling. That's what makes it so hard for a kid to stop on their own, even when they want to.
What your child experiences
Kids don't feel scrolling as a choice they're making. "I'll watch one video" turns into an hour without any real decision in between.
What you might notice
You might notice they're a little cranky when the phone goes away, or that slower things are harder for them to settle into, or that "I'm bored" shows up about ninety seconds after the phone goes in the drawer. None of that means something's wrong with your kid. It's the feed pulling them back, and once you both know that, you can talk about it.
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