Veronica Waddell is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in English and a passion for writing as well as film. She loves seeing what story each film has to offer and dissecting them to critically analyze all they have to offer. Veronica never bases her thoughts on rumor or gossip in hopes of getting views, which she loves about The Hollywood Insider. She’s an honest, positive girl who bases all her arguments on truth and fact, and tries to see the good in everything in order to build things up. While she enjoys entertainment of many kinds, she’s fond of children’s media because of how light-hearted and fun it is, and that’s what she enjoys reporting on most. It is her goal to work in children’s media to help entertain them today and create a memorable childhood for them in the future.
Sep 1, 2024
Table of Contents
These days, it has become commonplace to see young children on devices in public. For example, you may pass a mom in the grocery store and observe the toddler in her cart tapping away on an iPad. At first, this seems like a good system. The mom gets to take her time running her errand without her kid becoming impatient. While this isn’t harmful to do occasionally, there are dangers to making it a regular habit. By doing this, the child develops a dependency on devices to constantly entertain them. The 2023 film ‘M3gan’ uses the horror genre to give commentary on the unhealthy dependency on technology that parents spread to their children. The film focuses on Gemma (Allison Williams), a toy inventor who becomes the newly appointed guardian of her nine-year-old niece Cady (Violet McGraw). Gemma, believing that she is not good parent material, creates M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android), a life-like doll, who is meant to become Cady’s friend while Gemma works. In creating M3gan, Gemma essentially creates a substitute guardian to parent her niece for her, becoming an extreme example of how trying to help a child with technology can ultimately end up hurting them.
It is essential for parents and guardians to interact with their children daily. It is also important for kids to stimulate their creativity by playing with toys and devices independently. But, if kids play with a device too much, it’s possible they might become dependent on it. In ‘M3gan’, Cady spends so much time interacting with M3gan that she starts to view M3gan as a person instead of a doll. She feels anxious and sad whenever she’s apart from M3gan, becoming emotionally volatile until they are back together. When Gemma tries to bond with Cady, Cady is uninterested and wants to spend time with M3gan instead of her aunt. While technology can be fun and beneficial to children in many ways, the film shows how technology can interfere with a child’s emotional development when utilized irresponsibly by a parent.
Cady, like most kids, loves to play with toys. Early in the film, we find Cady stuck in the backseat of her parents car while they drive towards a ski trip. As they traverse the snowy mountain, Cady passes the time using an app to interact with an animatronic toy. Cady’s mother wants her to put away the screen and interact with them, but her father argues that there is no harm in the toy occupying Cady and that, without it, she would be complaining about being bored. Tragically, during their argument, an accident occurs and Cady’s parents die right in front of her. Cady’s mom had listed Gemma, her sister, as the guardian she wanted for Cady, thus making Gemma feel obligated to become Cady’s legal guardian. Shortly after Cady moves into Gemma’s house, Gemma, who is extremely passionate about her career, tells her that she’s going to be busy in her workshop down the hall, but that Cady can do whatever she wants to entertain herself. She even gives Cady her iPad along with permission to play with it, watch videos, or call a friend. Cady asks how much screen time she’s allowed to have on it, to which Gemma responds with “Oh, I don’t care. As much as you want”. Because Cady is grieving, Gemma doesn’t want to control her too much. While this is reasonable, she also has the ulterior motive of not wanting Cady to get bored and interrupt her work. It seems like every parental figure Cady is in the care of relies on technology to babysit her.
The dependency that Cady builds is gradual. It starts off with a small item, the iPad, and she initially still spends some quality time with Gemma. However, Gemma is unsure of how to take care of her depressed, grieving, niece. Instead of continuing to develop the emotional connection, Gemma becomes obsessed with developing M3gan. Initially, M3gan was a long term passion project that Gemma was trying to pitch to the toy company, but she finds the passion to finish it when she realizes she can use it to take care of Cady. M3gan is capable of doing things Gemma finds tedious. Tasks such as, reminding Cady to flush the toilet and wash her hands, answering tiresome questions, and reading her bedtime stories. With M3gan fulfilling all of these functions, Gemma’s coworker, Tess, asks, “If M3gan does all of these things for parents, then what’s left for the parents to do?” pointing out that the banal parts of parenting, while not enjoyable, are part of what makes a person feel like a parent to their child. Instead of focusing on bonding with Cady, Gemma focuses on work and does not realize how connected Cady becomes to M3gan in her absence. Furthermore, since M3gan is so lifelike, it’s easier to view her as a real person. This is how the unhealthy bond is formed. A grieving, mentally developing nine-year-old, who has just lost her parents, needs attention and affection from new parental figures. Earlier in the film, some scenes do show a bond forming between Gemma and Cady, showing a connection between them. When Cady realizes she can’t get the connection she needs from Gemma, she starts seeing M3gan as a real person.
When adults rely on technology too much to take care of their kids, they’re shocked when they’re met with the repercussions. When Gemma is revealing M3gan to the board of directors, Cady has a breakdown about her parents, revealing to everyone at the demonstration that, despite her time with M3gan, her emotional needs are not being met. During her public moment of grieving, M3gan is there to console her, while there is, literally and figuratively, a barrier between Gemma and Cady. M3gan comforts Cady by telling her that she’ll keep all of Cady’s memories of her parents safe for her. This is an extremely important scene because, while it should be the biggest moment of Gemma’s career, only she isn’t happy because she finally realizes what she’s done. Gemma has a lifetime of memories involving Cady’s mom as well. She could easily help keep the memory of Cady’s parents alive by telling Cady her own memories. It is only when she sees a robot comforting her niece that Gemma is struck hard with the reality that she is supposed to be loving and taking care of Cady, not a machine.
It’s not easy being a parent or guardian. Especially when the child you’re responsible for is going through something traumatic. But the most important thing adults can do is be there on a daily basis for their kids. Something as small as talking to your kid at a grocery store or reading them a bedtime story can be more impactful on their connection to you than you realize. Kids need attention and affection from their parents in order to develop a healthy connection with them. If a parent constantly puts their child in front of a screen to occupy them, then the child learns that they can depend on stimulation from that device, but not the parent. This creates emotional distance between the two, and once a parent realizes there’s distance, it’s not easy to overcome. Everyone can live under the same roof together, but that doesn’t automatically create love and bonds. It takes time, effort, and love to have a strong emotional relationship with the people around you. You can’t just cheat your way into that with technology.
Society views children to be a constant burden, forgetting that they were once children too, and doesn’t respect childrens’ intelligence. Advertisements for the M3gan doll center around using her to deal with the parts of having a kid that aren’t easy. This is an example of how corporations try to frame their products as being answers to problems that are better dealt with human connection. For many reasons, people today are becoming less connected. Human connection and cooperation is essential for human accomplishment. And how are children meant to feel comfortable making connections later in life if they cannot connect with their own parents or guardians?
As a film ‘M3gan’ succeeds at both entertaining and enlightening those who have not thought about children’s relationships with modern technology. It does a wonderful job of showing that technology itself isn’t bad, but that a dependency on it is. The film also understands that parenting is hard and not everyone chooses to become a parent. But it ultimately argues that anyone accepting the role has the responsibility to be emotionally present for their child. Many kids now are taught to use technology as an emotional crutch. Using the extremes of the horror genre, the film shows how dangerous this will continue to be as technology advances. Even though a hyper-realistic doll would, hopefully, not go down the same dark path that M3gan does, children could still easily form unhealthy attachments to it. As the movie illustrates, what starts off harmless can snowball into something we can’t handle.
Music: Anthony Wills | Cinematography: Peter McCaffrey | Edited: Jeff McEvoy
byVeronica Waddell
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Veronica Waddell is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in English and a passion for writing as well as film. She loves seeing what story each film has to offer and dissecting them to critically analyze all they have to offer. Veronica never bases her thoughts on rumor or gossip in hopes of getting views, which she loves about The Hollywood Insider. She’s an honest, positive girl who bases all her arguments on truth and fact, and tries to see the good in everything in order to build things up. While she enjoys entertainment of many kinds, she’s fond of children’s media because of how light-hearted and fun it is, and that’s what she enjoys reporting on most. It is her goal to work in children’s media to help entertain them today and create a memorable childhood for them in the future.
Veronica Waddell is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in English and a passion for writing as well as film. She loves seeing what story each film has to offer and dissecting them to critically analyze all they have to offer. Veronica never bases her thoughts on rumor or gossip in hopes of getting views, which she loves about The Hollywood Insider. She’s an honest, positive girl who bases all her arguments on truth and fact, and tries to see the good in everything in order to build things up. While she enjoys entertainment of many kinds, she’s fond of children’s media because of how light-hearted and fun it is, and that’s what she enjoys reporting on most. It is her goal to work in children’s media to help entertain them today and create a memorable childhood for them in the future.
Veronica Waddell is a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in English and a passion for writing as well as film. She loves seeing what story each film has to offer and dissecting them to critically analyze all they have to offer. Veronica never bases her thoughts on rumor or gossip in hopes of getting views, which she loves about The Hollywood Insider. She’s an honest, positive girl who bases all her arguments on truth and fact, and tries to see the good in everything in order to build things up. While she enjoys entertainment of many kinds, she’s fond of children’s media because of how light-hearted and fun it is, and that’s what she enjoys reporting on most. It is her goal to work in children’s media to help entertain them today and create a memorable childhood for them in the future.
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