Really? We need an app for that? Whatever happened to just living and learning, taking each day as it comes and letting life unfold naturally?
Health & Safety Watch (HSW) has reportedly just released a free cell phone app that gathers information for parents - things like recall notices, environmental advisories and health warnings, acting as a one-touch guide to put potentially life-saving information at parents' fingertips any time, anywhere. The app supposedly can even give parents the heads up if their children - or family pets - will become ill, injured or killed on a given day.
That's quite the app and while the concept does have some merit and could prove helpful, are we becoming just a little too technologically dependant?
"We're already bombarded with warnings, many of which are about dangers that are exaggerated or highly unlikely," points out sociologist Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear. "The net result is needless anxiety and increasing confusion about risks."
"When you get so many of these things together, each one trivializes the next until you don't know what you really need to worry about," adds Furedi, author of Paranoid Parenting and alumni of McGill University in Montreal. "It almost works to create an industry of fear around parenting."
Dr. Jeff Aramini, president of HSW, says he hopes instead the app will have the opposite effect, allowing parents a greater sense of control and easier access to information that's personally relevant.
Time and use will tell but sometimes a parent needs to trust their own instincts. Technology is great but not always dependable.
