19 Apr, 2015 Steve Jobs Said No Apples in His Home!

Apple cofounder & CEO, Steve Jobs, saw the potential harm in his kids using the iPhone & iPad. Family dinner conversations were the focal point – not apple.

I must confess…I let my kids play on the iPad and watch TV, but I limit them to a very short time for both and usually it’s for educational purposes only. Man, I’m starting to sound like my mom! “No Super Mario Brothers until you’ve played an hour of piano and finished all your calculus,” mom would say. Those were the days. I know I wouldn’t be the same person I am today, if I had constantly watched TV, played video games or fiddled with an iPad. I love technology, don’t get me wrong, but there are some serious things to take into consideration if we start using these devices as a surrogate mother or babysitter – and that’s exactly what I see happening.

So many kids are being handed electronic devices for the sole purpose of keeping them quiet or out of the way. At the doctors office, in vehicles and this past week – at my son’s baseball game! I wanted to get to the bottom of this. I did some research to see how the top tech gurus handled electronic devices in their own home. For example, the late Steve Jobs’ didn’t allow his own kids to use what he created. Although he said we couldn’t live without these amazing products, he actually had a major problem with his children using them.

In fact, New York Times Reporter, Nick Bilton, asked Jobs how his kids loved the iPad. “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” replied Jobs. Even though his children weren’t allowed to use the iPhone or iPad, they didn’t miss it. Nightly meals at the huge dinner table were what his kids looked forward to the most. Conversations about history and education filled the room instead of the sounds of gunfire from video games or the annoying sounds of Flappy Bird.

Jobs isn’t the only tech savvy man who keeps a close eye on what’s allowed in his home. “They say that none of their friends have the same rules. That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology first hand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids,” Chris Anderson told Inquisitr.

What – exactly – is dangerous about technology? Well according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, young kids lack the mental ability to understand what they are watching or they can become addicted to playing the same game repetitively. Other studies have shown that kids have a harder time communicating with people face to face due to engaging in so much screen time.

The obvious issue with kids using electronic devices, is that the time spent could be used by reading an actual book, playing a sport, doing a craft or something else more engaging. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has also been linked to older children who were raised on fast moving images from a screen earlier in their life. This involves us as parents becoming more involved with our children. I know first hand, how difficult this can be having four kids six and under.

There are some major benefits by having this technology in our world today, but all of this research does make me think differently when it comes to what our kids should be allowed to use and for how long. Fast forward two decades from now when our toddlers will be interviewed by potential employers. I am thinking long and hard about what I want my kids to learn now, so they can be successful later in life.

Question: What boundaries do you set regarding your kids’ technology useage? Share your answer by clicking here.