September 11, 2014<\/p>\n
Tim Butter<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs is a name which is synonymous with cutting edge, innovative and groundbreaking technology.<\/p>\n
So it may come as something as a surprise to learn Apple\u2019s former CEO didn\u2019t believe in letting his kids use some of his company\u2019s greatest products \u2013 the iPhone and the iPad.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not because the Apple godhead<\/a> was a closet Samsung fan either.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jobs, who died in 2011, may have had an instinctive flair for technology but he was a low tech parent who firmly believed in restricting his children\u2019s access to electronic devices.<\/p>\n \u201cWe limit how much technology our kids use at home,\u201d said Jobs way back in 2010, expressing growing concerns about his children\u2019s gadget use.<\/p>\n As all modern parents know, iPhones and iPads are extremely appealing to children. These little hand-held devices are state-of-the-art toys. Surrogate parents almost, capable of entertaining, distracting, and pacifying children during school holidays and on long car journeys when mom and dad\u2019s attentions are focused elsewhere.<\/p>\n Yet instead of thanking Apple for these extremely convenient parent assistants, should we actually be concerned about the potential harm they may be inflicting upon our youngsters?<\/p>\n Steve Jobs certainly appeared to think so. In a New York Times<\/i><\/a> article published this week, journalist Nick Bilton recalls how he once put it to Jobs that his kids must love the iPod, but to his surprise Jobs replied, \u201cThey haven\u2019t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure I responded with a gasp and dumbfounded silence. I had imagined the Jobs\u2019s household was like a nerd\u2019s paradise: that the walls were giant touch screens, the dining table was made from tiles of iPads and that iPods were handed out to guests like chocolates on a pillow. Nope, Mr. Jobs told me, not even close.\u201d<\/p>\n And Jobs wasn\u2019t the only technological guru who had substantial concerns about the long-term effects of kids engaging with touch-screen technology for hours on end.<\/p>\n Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired,<\/i> also believes in setting strict time limits and parental controls on every device at home.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists. They say that none of their friends have the same rules. That\u2019s because we have seen the dangers of technology first hand. I\u2019ve seen it in myself, I don\u2019t want to see that happen to my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Researchers at the University of California<\/a> Los Angeles recently published a study which demonstrated that just a few days after abstaining from using electronic gadgets, children\u2019s social skills improved immediately.<\/p>\n Which is definitely food for thought considering recent research showed that an average American child spends more than seven and a half hours a day using smart-phones and other electronic screens.<\/p>\n