Popjam: You're never too young for social validation
Issue #20
When my daughter Kaylie was seven, we were just hanging around the house while she was playing with an old iPhone 6 we’d passed down to her. Looking over her shoulder, I tried not to photobomb as she took a selfie in an app called PopJam. She played with the filters, pasting familiar characters over her face, and added stickers and text to her new creation. It looked fun: it was colorful and polished, and being in the tech industry myself, I was envious of the feature set.
Kaylie settled on a picture of herself with a dog face overlaid, wearing sunglasses and a hat. She added a sticker of a little girl, another of Captain Underpants, and a howling wolf with a unicorn horn. She added a speech bubble that said, “Ruff!”
She hit post. Almost instantly, my daughter’s playful exploration filled me with confusion and concern. Within seconds, reactions started coming in: "Great 1st creation! Have you tried the daily challenge yet? If you win, you’ll get tons of followers!" And, "PopJam liked your post!" Then, she got a notification that she had two new followers on her public account, one of which was from an account labeled “PopJam.” She was so proud. “Daddy!” she screamed. “PopJam is following me!”
Kaylie was elated. I was disturbed. This all happened right around the time that I was researching kid-tech in earnest, and I was learning that this kind of attention could be toxic to developing brains. Watching my daughter’s reaction to these bot-driven interactions, something didn’t sit right with me. "If you win, you’ll get tons of followers!"
Did I really want that for my daughter? Did I want my daughter to grow up seeking these kinds of rewards? In the span of a few seconds, the app had taught her that amassing likes and followers—none of whom she knew personally—meant she was important. Did I really want her monetizing the idea of followers, and chasing validation? (Spoiler alter: the answer is hell no.)
By now, most of us are aware of the fact that social media uses persuasive design and tactics to mine our attention. As a result, the majority of us place importance on vanity metrics, which are one of the tools these platforms use to keep us coming back. We recognize them as things like “Likes,” “Followers” and “Streaks.” Vanity metrics create false urgency and competition between users (think: how many likes did my post get?) and that’s what I worry about more than anything—especially in the context of rising depression, anxiety and suicide rates among youth in recent years. This is enough of a problem in apps that target adults, but I found it extremely alarming to see the same mechanisms in an app targeted at kids. And it’s also worth noting here that PopJam’s business model is (unsurprisingly) based on advertising.
When I set out to write my book Screen Captured, I knew I wanted to write about Kaylie's experience with PopJam. The persuasive design encouraging kids to amass likes and followers—it just didn't seem right or healthy to me, but at the time, I struggled with the optics of "taking shots" at another children's app. Ultimately, I decided to name names, and in retrospect, I'm glad I did.
And, I felt vindicated at the end of 2019, when PopJam got into hot water with the Advertising Standards Authority over an ad in the UK. The TV spot encouraged kids to "get likes and followers to level up," and the ASA determined that message could be "detrimental" to children’s mental health and self-esteem. Ultimately, they banned it after concluding "that the ad was likely to cause harm to those under 18 and was irresponsible." This begs the question: if the app serves kids the same message that the ad did, wouldn't that be "detrimental" as well?
A deeper dive
Here are a few helpful resources in case you want to really dig into today's topic:
If you're interested in reading more about the Advertising Standards Authority's response to the PopJam commercial, there are some enlightening quotes included in this article here. PopJam claims that their system of likes and followers isn't about social validation, but rather unlocking new "levels" in the app. If you ask me, that doesn't make it any less harmful.
I don't believe that adult apps retrofit all that well for kids. That's because children have unique needs from technology and they deserve products that are built with these needs in mind. PopJam is a clear example of an attempt to retrofit an adult platform (Instagram) for a kid audience, and that is the fundamental problem with it.
TL;DR
Too long; didn't read. It shouldn't be a full-time job to keep up on industry news, so here is a mercifully quick summary of some other notable developments:
For a lot of families, the pandemic forced a reckoning with unrealistic screen time limits—and lots of kids necessarily starting spending much more time with tech. Now that we're seeing a bit of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, some parents are starting to wonder how and when they can curb their kids' screen time again. In general, I don't think time-stamping is the greatest way to approach kids and technology, but I do recognize that our children will soon be able to return to pre-pandemic social activities. I suspect most will willingly choose playdates, sports practices and outdoor adventures over screen time, but if you're concerned about making that transition with your kids, this article has some useful tips for making a family tech plan.
Here's some good news: the new stimulus package in the United States includes $7B to ensure that students and teachers have internet access and devices at home to learn and teach. The truth is that millions of school-age kids don't have the connection or technology to learn remotely, and this situation was hugely exacerbated when remote school became the norm in March last year. This funding is a big win for Common Sense Media, which started pushing for a solution as soon as the pandemic hit last year.
And lastly
Here are a few more pieces of original writing from me and my team—just in case you're keen for more:
If screen time is feeling like a contentious issue in your home lately, you're not alone. My team put together a list of 10 important conversations to have with your kids, and these can be great prompts to keep the communication open and productive.
I know I talked a lot about "screen time" in this newsletter, but the truth is, I actually dislike the term quite a bit. I think it's an outdated way to approach technology—and our kids deserve a more productive way to think about screens.
Okay, that's it from me until next week. If you enjoyed this newsletter, and know of another parent who would as well, please feel free to forward it along.