Why Steve Jobs banned iPhones to his children

Video: Why Steve Jobs banned iPhones to his children

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The New York Times journalist Nick Bilton, during one of his interviews with Steve Jobs, asked him whether his children love the iPad. “They don't use it. We limit the time that children spend at home on new technologies,”he replied.

The journalist met the answer to his question with stunned silence. For some reason, it seemed to him that Jobs's house was filled with giant touch screens, and he gave out iPads to guests instead of sweets. But everything turned out to be not even close.

In general, most technology executives and Silicon Valley venture capitalists limit their children to the time they spend in front of screens - be it computers, smartphones, or tablets. The Jobs family even banned the use of gadgets at night and on weekends. Other technology gurus do the same.

This is somewhat strange. After all, most parents advocate a different approach, allowing their children to spend days and nights on the Internet. But it seems that the CEOs of IT giants know something that other ordinary people do not know.

Chris Anderson, a former editor at Wired who is now the CEO of 3D Robotics, has imposed restrictions on the use of gadgets for his family members. He even set up the devices in such a way that each of them could be activated no more than a couple of hours a day.

“My children accuse my wife and me of being fascists who are too concerned with technology. They say that none of their friends have such restrictions in their family,”he says.

Anderson has five children, they are between 5 and 17 years old, and restrictions apply to each of them.

“This is because I see the danger of being overly addicted to the Internet like no one else. I saw what problems I faced myself, and I don't want my children to have the same problems,”he explains.

By the "dangers" of the Internet, Anderson and the parents who agree with him mean harmful content (pornography, scenes of bullying other children) and the fact that if children use gadgets too often, they soon become addicted to them.

Some go even further. Alex Constantinople, director of OutCast Agency, says his youngest 5-year-old doesn't use gadgets at all during his work week. His other two children, who are between 10 and 13 years old, can use tablets and PCs in the house for no longer than 30 minutes a day.

Evan Williams, founder of Blogger and Twitter, says their two sons have similar restrictions as well. There are hundreds of paper books in their house, and every child can read as many as they like. But with tablets and smartphones it is becoming more and more difficult - they can use them no longer than an hour a day.

Research shows that children under the age of ten are especially susceptible to new technologies and addicted to them like drugs. So Steve Jobs was right: the researchers say that children should not be allowed to use tablets for more than 30 minutes a day, and smartphones for more than two hours a day. For 10-14-year-old children, the use of a PC is allowed, but only for solving school problems.

Strictly speaking, the fashion for IT bans is infiltrating American homes more and more often. Some parents prohibit their children from using teen social media (such as Snapchat). This allows them not to worry about what their children post on the Internet: after all, thoughtless posts left in childhood can harm their authors in adulthood.

Scientists say the age at which restrictions on the use of technology can be lifted is 14. Although Anderson even forbids his 16-year-old children to use "screens" in the bedroom. Anyone, including a TV screen. Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, only allows his teenage children to use gadgets in the living room. They have no right to bring them into the bedroom.

What to do with your children? Well, Steve Jobs, for example, used to have dinner with the kids and always discussed books, history, progress, even politics with them. But at the same time, none of them had the right to take out the iPhone during a conversation with his father. As a result, his children grew up independent of the Internet. Are you ready for these restrictions?

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