I would rate this app on a scale of 1-5 as a 3. The reasoning behind this is that there is both about an equal amount of good and bad to this app. Steinberg in her writing on Adolescence in Lifespan perspective says, “Periods of heightened brain plasticity are times when our experiences are likely to have enduring effects. We have known for some time that the first few years of life constitute one such period. We now know that adolescence is another.” (pg. 219). Knowing this, teens being able to use an app such as wave to help them manage their emotions at this age is highly beneficial. If they are able to grow their emotional stability at an age like this where they are highly plasticable, they will be able to hold onto those new skills much easier then if they tried to learn it at an age where they are developing as much. Since teens in this developmental age are usually on their phones, even being able to download an easily accessible app to work on their mental health, especially one that provides counseling, is great. The great thing about this app is that it is easy to log into. It takes about 3 minutes to download and join the app. It is very easy to use in the sense that there are many activities sectioned off into the 6 different skills the app provides. The activities are short and easy, and there are interactive activities like quizzes and the guided meditation. It does give easy accessibility to knowledge and resources on bettering one’s mental health which is great. Another aspect is according to Janet Edgette, “Most teens are in therapy only because their parents, their teachers, the juvenile court judge, and/or some adult in authority somewhere has told them they must see a therapist..” (Edgette, 2012). Using an app like Waves allows teenagers to take therapy into their own hands. It is true that usually teens are required or told to by an authority figure that they must go to therapy. This makes them reluctant to do so since they are being told to do it. The nice thing about downloading an app on one’s phone, is that it allows the teen to make their own decision on seeking mental health help and allows them to go on their own pace. They are the ones in control. The downfall to this app is it is almost too easy. It does seem a bit childlike in this matter. The visuals are all human like animals, and the main color to this website is just white. The activities are 3-5 slides and take about a minute to read. I think it would be more beneficial for users 13+ to have activities that go a bit more in depth and were a little more interactive in general. I feel it would be more appropriate to give this app a rating of users 6-10 since the activities seem more catered to that age. Another great quote from Janette Edgette is, “This reticence can convey to the teen client not that these therapists genuinely care, but that they're willing to sacrifice a measure of self-respect in order to appease the client.” WIth this sort of app conveying child like tendencies, where it seems the app is vaguely talking about topics on not truly diving into them as one should for someone who is 13+, they may feel like this app is not for them. They may not connect to the app since it is not being realistic in the ways they need it to be, and therefore may get bored of the app and delete or irregularly use it. That is my fear of this app. Since I being,a young adult, I did find it not as enticing pretty quickly. Overall, this app is a great idea and does give some great resources for mental health and an opportunity to receive mental health coaching. It is a good resource for users to have since they can download it at the tip of their fingers. It is especially useful for those at a developmental age since learning this skills now while they are plasticable will benefit them later on. The app could be better if it fixed its artwork on the app and went more into depth on the topics its trying to give further knowledge on. This way the app would be more beneficial to 13+ as it states. As of now I would give this app a rating of 3, but if it would acknowledge and change those things I would give it a 4.5 or 5.
Show more
Response from developer
Thank you so much for this thoughtful review! Over the last few months, we've been building out our content library to dive deeper on more topics that our users have been asking for. We've redesigned the layout of our Explore tab to make the content easier to find, as well. We're also updating the illustration style to move more away from animals, as our target audience really is young adults like you! And, we're actively creating more and more immersive content such as videos and audio. We'd love if you'd take another look and let us know what you think about the changes we're making!
