Being Steve Jobs’ son or daughter would surely mean a never-ending supply of new high-tech devices to play around with, right?
Not according to a New York Times article by Nick Bilton, who claims that Jobs set out to purposely limit the amount of time his kids spent using their iPhones and other gadgets — even going so far as to stop them using Apple’s latest must have-devices altogether.
Bilton recalls being “[chewed] out” by Steve Jobs after writing about one of the iPad’s perceived shortcomings in 2010. After Jobs had cooled down, Bilton asked Jobs what his children thought of the then-newly released iPad, to which Jobs informed the stunned journalist that they hadn’t tried it yet because, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
The subsequent story describes how this actually isn’t all that uncommon a practice for the kids of technology CEOs and the like — many of whom spend less time with the latest tech product than your average person. Bilton backed his conversation with Jobs up by contacting biographer Walter Isaacson to check Jobs was telling him the truth.
“Every evening Steve made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things,” Isaacson says, his knowledge coming from having spent plenty of time in the Jobs household. “No one ever pulled out an iPad or computer. The kids did not seem addicted at all to devices.”
A recent article in Newsweek claimed that U.S. children spend more than 7.5 hours each day using smartphones and other electronic devices: something attributed to making them inept at reading social cues due to the lack of personal interaction.
Steve Jobs definitely realized the value of personal interaction (for better and worse) so perhaps it’s no surprise he would want his kids to be the same.
But it’s still a startlingly honest revelation from a person who did such a great job of selling the latest must-have device to the rest of us.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Steve Jobs wouldn’t let his kids become iOS addicts”
My wife, a 4th grade teacher, is considering “flipping” her classroom this year. The lecture/demonstration part of the teaching is done on video, which the kids watch at home as their homework. They’re quite used to playing/interacting like that when they get home anyway. Then, when they come to school the next day, they put the skills to work, ask questions, socialize with other students. The theory is that this more in line with your typical kid in 2014, who were just born when YouTube was created. It also maximizes classroom time for interaction and clarification, rather than just watching the teacher talk. We’ll see how it goes.
I would be very interested in how this goes. I think it is a GREAT idea!!!!
Well I guess your wife’s idea maybe can help but then, what gonna happen with the ability to read and to write? You just can not completely avoid the use of traditional ways of education.
Some techniques was developed to help any children to acquire all the knowledge on different ways, there is some job to do at home of course but some other techniques are used just to find a new way to take back the attention and respect of some of those kids to the teacher, you can buy back some of them but maybe others already have a problem and needs other kind of help.
Your post makes me remember this videos of the series ‘A day made of glass’ by Corning:
A Day Made of Glass
A Day Made of Glass 2
A Day Made of Glass Extended Montage
A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked
Hope you enjoy it or maybe you already know it, anyway have a great day!
Well I guess your wife’s idea maybe can help but then, what gonna happen with the ability to read and to write? You just can not completely avoid the use of traditional ways of education.
Some techniques was developed to help any children to acquire all the knowledge on different ways, there is some job to do at home of course but some other techniques are used just to find a new way to take back the attention and respect of some of those kids to the teacher, you can buy back some of them but maybe others already have a problem and needs other kind of help.
Your post makes me remember this videos of the series ‘A day made of glass’ by Corning:
A Day Made of Glass
A Day Made of Glass 2
A Day Made of Glass Extended Montage
A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked
(Please look for this videos, I can not add the link)
Hope you enjoy it or maybe you already know it, anyway have a great day!
awesome… that’s basically the “Khan Academy classroom system” https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAT504AT504&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#safe=off&q=khan%20academy%20classroom
The addiction issues can be present almost anywhere and under any circumstance so I guess it is just the common sense, we can see all that happened with almost any electrical and electronic toy, the video games or the food (fast/candy), each and everyone of us has an addiction, cleaning, money, sports, clothes but not everyone can control it.
But there is a problem with the children and the excessive use of computer+tablet+phone+TV, they just forget about many other fun activities, activities to help them to develop and acquire new abilities because I can not think in a world full of humans just like the ones on Wall-E movie.
So the education and productivity related to the technologies is and should be a total different way, but you can not take advantage or approach this technology to the children when you just find this devices are 80% entertainment and 20% productivity.
The children needs to learn to read, to touch, to feel, to smell, to live and sadly your children will not find any of that if they are attached to a device watching and thinking about that just as the ‘real world’, unfortunately now a days most of them has an addiction but they just not know it.
Each and everyone of this children has the chance to know the real world, you will find it just on the outside of your house, away from any of this technologies.
Just look around yourself and think about how much time do you spend with your devices and how much attention do you pay to the world around yourself, so then think about the same on the children’s side.