Review: Unboxing by Lavie Tidhar

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Review of Unboxing by Lavie Tidhar (2100 words)

Apex Magazine, Issue 136 : Purchase or Read Online

A timely, terrible tale about the (unfortunately common) unsupervised use of the internet by toddlers.

In itself, the idea is scary, because we know these kids channels can get really creepy, with the algorithms pushing viewers from one channel to another - we can’t anticipate where the suggestions will take us.

This is much more unsettling when it comes to children, and this story takes it a step further. The story quickly turned supernatural and sinister, but what scared me most is how many elements of the story were true to life.

Using the internet as a way to keep your child occupied is something almost all parents do on occasion, and if supervised, I believe it might still be okay - the world we live in is so interconnected it’s difficult to isolate your child from it. But watching these kind of videos that provide no education or value is, quite simply, bad. Their popularity is an unfortunate reality of our times. And this story takes that gap in parental attention and runs with it.

The result is a creepy story that will make you want to sanitize your internet habits, and terrify you even more if you have small children. I loved it. 

 

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