Connected at Brookwood: Why We Need Tools to Use Our Tools

You've probably heard of apps like Freedom, Opal, and OneSec: tools designed to block you from using your own devices. Maybe you use one yourself. They can be genuinely helpful, creating boundaries that feel impossible to maintain otherwise. But their existence points to something worth examining. These tools wouldn't be necessary if our phones and apps were designed for our wellbeing. Instead, they were designed to keep us engaged as long as possible, because engagement is the business model. The more time you spend scrolling, the more data gets collected, the more ads get served, the more money gets made. Autoplay, infinite scroll, notifications timed for maximum interruption: none of this is accidental. These are features built by teams of engineers and behavioral psychologists optimizing for one thing: your attention.

This matters because understanding the economics changes how we approach the problem. You're up against billion-dollar companies that have spent decades perfecting the art of making their products difficult to put down. Framing this as a personal discipline problem misses the point entirely. When kids understand they're being deliberately manipulated, they start developing their own immune response.

So what do you do? Using friction tools can genuinely help create the breathing room you need. And pairing those tools with awareness makes them even more effective. Talk with your kids about why these apps feel so hard to close. What does autoplay do? Why do notifications arrive when they do? How do endless feeds work? Understanding the mechanics builds resilience.

One concrete step: this week, pick one app or feature in your household and just notice it together. Watch how autoplay works on YouTube. Count how many times TikTok resurfaces after you've closed it. Name what you see. Awareness is the beginning of agency.

David Saunders
Director of Leadership, Changemaking & Technology