'The Social Dilemma' expert Tim Kendall on social media addiction and how to curb it

The Social Dilemma is a documentary on Netflix that explores the impact of social media usage on youngsters today. It also runs a parallel fictional story that showcases the issues these youngsters face with social media in today's world. The Social Dilemma garnered positive reviews from the audience as it spread awareness on the various issues concerning social media. The Social Dilemma expert Tim Kendall recently shared his advice about how one should break their social media addiction.

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Tim Kendall's take on Social Media addiction

Tim Kendall is the former president at Pinterest and a former Facebook executive who helped Facebook build its business model. He is the key speaker in The Social Dilemma and currently is the CEO of the Moments app which helps manage their phone time. Time Kendall in a video interview with 7NEWS Australia mentioned how one should take a break from social media addiction. He said that throwing one's phone away is extreme but usually people are unconsciously using social media. People think that they're using social media for two hours but in reality, their usage shows four-and-a-half hours. 

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Tim Kendall says that even when he is aware of this he has a pseudo-addict relationship with social media himself. He felt bad about himself after deleting his apps and had a weak moment and reinstalled them. He added that even if one can't delete the apps, they can definitely limit its usage. 

How to break social media addiction?

The Social Dilemma expert said that the first thing one should do is figure out how much time they have been spending on social media. Once people realise how much much time they waste on social media, it is much easier to control. Tim Kendall mentioned that people should change their notification settings and set a limit on using social media. For instance, one can always decide that they will not use the phone for 2-3 hours a day. 

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Tim Kendall on children's addiction

When asked about how much time does he allow his children to use their phones, The Social Dilemma expert said that his children are hardly 4 and 6 years old. He does not let them use gadgets throughout the day. He mentioned that overusing social media changes the shape of their brains. Many people asked Tim Kendall about how to control their teenage kids from using these apps. Tim Kendall said that the entire family has to behave in a similar pattern. Parents should control their usage too, he said. 

The Social Dilemma expert also talked about how phones listen to us and show us ads on our recent discussions. He said that the technology is so advanced that it understands people more than they understand themselves. He also spoke about fake news and how the government will soon start charging penalties to social media companies for doing so. 

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