If you fall within the Gen-Y era like us, chances are you’ve given a bunch of thought as to how you would raise your own children in this day and age (assuming you don’t have children already). Especially with technology, so much has changed since our childhoods in the 90s.
Here’s one question: Would you introduce the technological wonder/heroin that is the iPod and iPad to your kids? Steve Jobs wouldn’t, and for good reason too. In a Sunday article, New York Times reporter Nick Bilton said he once assumingly asked Jobs, “So your kids must love the iPad?” Jobs responded:
“They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
Especially in Silicon Valley, there is actually a trend of tech execs and engineers who shield their kids from technology. They even send their kids to non-tech schools like the Waldorf School in Los Altos, where computers aren’t found anywhere because they only focus on hands-on learning.
There is a quote that was highlighted in The Times by Chris Anderson, CEO of 3D Robotics and a father of five. He explains what drives those who work in tech to keep it from their kids. “My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules… That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.”
If our current addictions to our iPhones and other tech is any indication, we may be setting up our children for incomplete, handicapped lives devoid of imagination, creativity and wonder when we hook them onto technology at an early age. We were the last generation to play outside precisely because we didn’t have smartphones and laptops. We learned from movement, hands-on interaction, and we absorbed information through books and socialization with other humans as opposed to a Google search.
Learning in different ways has helped us become more well-rounded individuals — so, should we be more worried that we are robbing our children of the ability to Snapchat and play “Candy Crush” all day if we don’t hand them a smartphone, or should we more worried that we would be robbing them of a healthier, less dependent development if we do hand them a smartphone?
I think Steve Jobs had it right in regard to his kids. So the next time you think about how you will raise your kids, you may want to (highly) consider not giving them whatever fancy tech we’ll have while they are growing up. Play outside with them and surround them with nature; they might hate you, but they will absolutely thank you for it later, because I’m willing to bet that’s exactly how many of us feel about it now that we are older.
Source: SFGate Photo: iClarified
Speaking of parenting in this technical age, check out our
Parenting Techies workshop.
- How can you set parent controls on your devices and apps?
- Which apps are safe and of which ones should you be leery?
- How do you talk to your children and prepare them?
- How do you set boundaries with your teenager?
Comments 2
Wow
that’s interesting
I NEVER would has guessed that about steves children.
so what do we do?
are they going too far?
are they extremist?
just like he said he has seen the danger 1st hand
so do we just be careful and justify why we are following the world
make excuses why we give our children smart phones
Is it more along the lines because eveyone else is doing it
or just a battle that we can’t fight?
Lots of questions and concerns I have
For being a CEO of Apple we should probably take his consconsideration very important
I’m not sure if he is following the Lord or is a Christian, but if he is not and is living a secular life he sure is taking a stand that more Christian should take
These choices will be coming soon enough for my wife and I to make, I’m sure we will also find away to justify why our children need a mobile phone as well
Thanks for the info Jonathan
Author
Hey Richard.
I think it’s all balance and safeguarding. Forward the link to our Parenting Techies workshop to Troy and ask him to bring us in. Too many parents NEED this.
Thanks! Look forward to helping you figure this out when your kids are old enough to have their own phones. 🙂