🛑SHARE THIS POST with parents of teens or young adults. If you have a college-bound student this year, this is a MUST DO.
🙈We know our kids are going to get into situations that could feel unsafe as they get older. We also want to empower them to get help if they need it. Use this hack to help your teen or young adult get help if they need it.
🧠I really like using these “focus settings” to customize a phone or tablet to work for me; you can create new focus settings just by swiping up or searching for “focus” in your settings menu on iPhone. On Android this is called “focus mode”.
🤔If a teen is scared or impaired, they might not be able to search through all their apps. They might freeze or panic. So, make a focus setting that keeps their home page streamlined and simple: messages, phone, taxi/uber, maps, and any other basic apps that could help them in an unsafe situation.
🤯THIS PART IS KEY: help your teen or young adult think ahead to what they might need: google the local bus schedule, the webpage for campus police or assistance, and *save it to their home screen*. Then they click it like an app without having to search
💪🏼Finally, I use the “Shortcuts” function for iPhone to make automations that could text an adult or call someone with the literal tap of a button. If you have a samsung, you can set this up in “modes and routines” and for Android users, there are apps that do this like “Automate” but if you know a better one, tell me in the comments!
👉🏻Why do this? Because I want my child to be safe. I want them to get help if necessary. I want them to not spend their valuable time trying to wrack their brain for what to google and instead staying calm and empowered in a given situation. And I want to model that technology is meant to *empower us* to deal with a given situation, it is not meant to hinder or overwhelm us.
What shortcuts or apps would you add to this setting?
