Interviews with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other representatives of the US tech elite show that Silicon Valley parents limit their children from using newfangled gadgets and devices.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs raised their children away from technology
Alena Somova
Bill Gates didn't allow his daughter to use a phone until she was 14 years old. Photo: Shutterstock Rex
Jobs, who was Apple's CEO until his death, told the New York Times in 2011 that he banned his children from using the iPad. “We try to limit the use of technology in our home as much as possible,” Jobs told the reporter.
In Screen Kids, Clement and Miles argue that wealthy Silicon Valley parents are more aware of the harmful potential of smartphones, tablets and computers than the general public. And this despite the fact that these parents often earn their living by creating and investing in technology.
"Just imagine that in a modern public school, where children are required to use electronic devices such as iPads," the authors wrote, "Steve Jobs' children would be among the few who would refuse this initiative."
Unfortunately, Jobs' children have already graduated from school, so one can only guess how the co-founder of the corporation would react to modern educational technologies. But Clement and Miles believe that if they went to the average American school today, they would use technology in the classroom much more than they did at home when growing up.
According to the co-authors of the book, things are different in specialized training. A number of Silicon Valley magnet schools, such as Waldorf schools, take a low-tech approach to education. They use regular chalk boards and pencils. Instead of learning to code, children learn skills of cooperation and mutual respect. At Brightworks School, children learn to be creative through DIY crafts and tree house activities.
eBay's CTO sent his kids to school without computers. Employees of other Silicon Valley giants did the same: Google, Apple, Yahoo, Hewlett-Packard.
This school has a very simple, old-fashioned look - blackboards with crayons, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks with notebooks and pencils. For training, they use familiar tools that are not associated with the latest technologies: pens, pencils, sewing needles, sometimes even clay, etc. And not a single computer. Not a single screen. Their use is prohibited in classrooms and discouraged at home.
Last Tuesday in Year 5 the children knitted small wool patterns on wooden knitting needles, recapturing the knitting skills they had learned in the lower grades. This type of activity, according to the school, helps develop the ability to solve complex problems, structure information, count, and also develop coordination.
In 3rd grade, the teacher practiced multiplication by asking students to be as fast as lightning. She asked them a question, how much is four times five, and they all shouted “20” together and flashed their fingers, writing the required number on the board. A full room of live calculators.
2nd grade students, standing in a circle, repeated the poem after the teacher, while playing with a bag filled with beans. The purpose of this exercise is to synchronize the body and brain.
This comes at a time when schools around the world are rushing to equip their classrooms with computers, and many politicians are saying that not doing so is simply stupid.
Interestingly, the opposite point of view has become widespread in the epicenter of the high-tech economy, where some parents and educators are making it clear that school and computers do not mix.
Advocates of learning without IT technologies believe that computers suppress creative thinking, mobility, human relationships and attentiveness. These parents believe that when it comes time to introduce their children to the latest technology, they will always have the necessary skills and facilities at home to do so.
According to Anne Flynn, director of educational technology for the National School Board, computers are essential. “If schools have access to new technology and can afford it, but don't use it, they are depriving our children of what they may deserve,” Flynn said.
Paul Thomas, a former teacher and Furman University professor who has written 12 books on government education, disagrees, arguing that it is better for education to use as few computers as possible. “Education is first and foremost a human experience,” says Paul Thomas. “Technology is a distraction when literacy, numeracy and critical thinking are needed.”
When proponents of equipping classrooms with computers argue that computer literacy is necessary to meet the challenges of our time, parents who believe that computers are not needed are surprised: why rush if it is all so easy to learn? “It's super easy. It's like learning how to brush your teeth, says Mr. Eagle, a Silicon Valley fellow. “At Google and places like that, we make technology as stupidly simple as possible. I don’t see any reason why a child wouldn’t be able to master them when he gets older.”
The students themselves do not consider themselves deprived of high technology. They watch movies from time to time and play computer games. Children say they even get disappointed when they see their parents or relatives entangled in various devices.
Orad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit his cousins and found himself surrounded by five people who were playing with their gadgets, not paying any attention to him or each other. He had to shake each of them by the hand and say, “Hey guys, I’m here!”
Fin Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google, said he likes learning with pencils and pens more than with a computer because he can see his progress years later. “In a few years, I will be able to open my first notebooks and see how bad I used to write. But with a computer this is impossible, all the letters are the same,” says Fin. “Besides, if you know how to write on paper, you can write even if water is spilled on your computer or the electricity goes out.”
With computers, we think everything is clear, but now about the currently fashionable gadgets...
Psychologists have identified a new type of psychological addiction - gadget addiction. A gadget is any electronic toy for adults: a mobile phone, a CD player, a laptop computer. It turns out that attachment to these devices turns into a disease. People buy new devices without any reasonable reason, and working with them becomes an obsessive habit. In Europe, several million consumers already suffer from this disease, and with the development of technology, gadget addiction can become as dangerous an epidemic as Internet addiction or gambling addiction.
It all started in the fall of 2003 with ordinary marketing research, which Benchmark Research Ltd. specialists carried out. conducted for the largest manufacturer of digital media - the Japanese corporation TDK. The main purpose of the surveys was to find out how many Europeans were going to buy a DVD player, but the results went far beyond their intended purpose.
A complete surprise was the fact that Europeans make decisions about purchasing portable electronic devices not based on the need or functionality of a new device, but on the basis of “rumors” and “fashion,” the desire to show off a new “toy” to their friends or to look modern, says Jean- Paul Eku, head of the marketing department of the European division of the Japanese corporation (TDK Recording Media Europe). — To buy a new gadget, women can save on cosmetics, and men can save on purchasing travel packages. It is also surprising that people go into debt to buy a not very necessary, but fashionable electronic device.
Obviously, psychologists who study the irrational behavior of “homo sapiens” should have been involved in the work.
The study involved residents of six European countries (France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Italy and the UK) aged 18 to 45 years. On average, every European is surrounded by five favorite personal devices: 93% actively use a cell phone, 73% use a laptop, 60% use a DVD player. The main planned purchase of a third of Europeans is a digital video camera.
Almost half of Europeans said they couldn’t live without their mobile phone, and 42% said they couldn’t live without their laptop. About 10% of respondents admitted to having several obvious signs of psychological dependence.
“In order to be convinced of the existence of such a dependence, it is enough to look at the behavior of students at a lecture,” says Dmitry Smirnov, professor, doctor of psychological sciences. — Half of the hands under the desk are making convulsive movements. They send SMS. No threats or disciplinary measures are successful. The purpose of these text messages is not at all to communicate with friends, not to receive new information, but the communication process itself. Now the fashion has come for mobile phones with cameras, as a result of which a new “disease” is sending pictures. The nature of the “disease” is exactly the same as that of any addiction.
“Elements of addictive behavior are inherent in any person (drinking alcohol, gambling), but the problem of pathological dependence begins when the desire to escape from reality begins to dominate the mind and becomes the central idea,” says Vitalina Burova, psychiatrist, psychotherapist. — Instead of solving the problem “here and now,” a person chooses addictive implementation, thereby achieving a more comfortable psychological state in the present moment, postponing problems for later. This care can be carried out in a variety of ways.
Including the desire to own a new electronic toy. The most impulsive consumers of new gadgets live in the UK. A third of the inhabitants of Foggy Albion buy devices not because they are really needed, but on the basis of rumors and fashion for technical innovations. Italians suffer least from the new mania. Only 4% of them make unreasonable purchases of new cell phones and PDAs. And the hottest guys live in Poland - 19% of Poles told Benchmark Research that they feel angry when they can’t afford to buy a new tech product (the average figure for “angry shoppers” in Europe is 10%).
Izvestia has reason to believe that Russian consumers are not far removed from the fraternal Slavic people. This conclusion can be reached by studying the results of a survey of residents of six large Russian cities, which, at the request of Izvestia, was conducted by experts from the Laboratory of Social Technologies.
It turned out that in Russia people are “sick” primarily with their mobile phones. 85% of young residents of Russian cities aged 18 to 35 said that they could not live without a cell phone. Half of the respondents are psychologically dependent on portable music devices - CD or MP3 players. Other favorite gadgets include digital cameras, PDAs, and even portable DVD players and digital voice recorders.
Is it possible and, most importantly, is it necessary to fight gadget addiction? “Of course it is necessary,” says Dmitry Smirnov. — Any attempt to avoid solving real problems takes a person out of society and makes him poorer. And both figuratively and literally. We need to control ourselves."
As confirmation of the above facts, the information received by The New York Times journalist Nick Bilton is of interest. During one of his interviews with Steve Jobs, he asked him whether his children liked 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 that he was handing out iPads to guests instead of candy. But everything turned out to be completely different.
In general, most tech CEOs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley limit their children's screen time - be it computers, smartphones or tablets. Jobs' family even banned the use of gadgets at night and on weekends. Other “gurus” from the world of technology do the same.
This is a bit strange. After all, most parents preach a different approach, allowing their children to spend their days and nights online. But it seems that the CEOs of IT giants know something that other ordinary people do not know.
Chris Anderson, a former Wired editor who is now chief executive of 3D Robotics, has imposed restrictions on the use of gadgets for his family members. He even configured 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, ranging in age from 5 to 17, and the restrictions apply to each of them.
“This is because I see the dangers of over-indulgence in the Internet as well as anyone. I saw the 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 parents who agree with him mean harmful content (pornography, scenes of abuse of other children) and the fact that if children use gadgets too often, they soon become dependent on them.
Some go even further. Alex Constantinople, director of OutCast Agency, says his youngest son, five, doesn't use technology at all during the work week. His two other children, who are between 10 and 13 years old, can use tablets and PCs in the house for no more than 30 minutes a day.
Evan Williams, founder of Blogger and Twitter, says their two sons also have similar limitations. There are hundreds of paper books in their house, and each child can read as many of them as he likes. But with tablets and smartphones it’s more and more difficult - they can only use them for no more than an hour a day.
Research shows that children under ten years of age are especially susceptible to new technologies and become addicted to them like drugs. So Steve Jobs was right: Researchers say children should not be allowed to use tablets for more than 30 minutes a day, or 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 assignments.
Strictly speaking, the fashion for IT bans is penetrating American homes more and more often. Some parents prohibit their children from using social media for teens (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 that the age at which restrictions on the use of technology can be lifted is 14 years old. Although Anderson even prohibits his 16-year-old children from using “screens” in the bedroom. Anything, including the TV screen. Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, allows his teenage children to use gadgets only 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, had the habit of having dinner with his children and always discussed books, history, progress, even politics with them. But at the same time, none of them had the right to take out an iPhone during a conversation with their father. As a result, his children grew up independent of the Internet. Are you ready for such restrictions?
This school has a very simple, old-fashioned look - blackboards with crayons, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks with notebooks and pencils. For training, they use familiar tools that are not associated with the latest technologies: pens, pencils, sewing needles, sometimes even clay, etc. And not a single computer. Not a single screen. Their use is prohibited in classrooms and discouraged at home.
Last Tuesday in Year 5 the children knitted small wool patterns on wooden knitting needles, recapturing the knitting skills they had learned in the lower grades. This type of activity, according to the school, helps develop the ability to solve complex problems, structure information, count, and also develop coordination.
In 3rd grade, the teacher practiced multiplication by asking students to be as fast as lightning. She asked them a question, how much is four times five, and they all shouted “20” together and flashed their fingers, writing the required number on the board. A full room of live calculators.
2nd grade students, standing in a circle, repeated the poem after the teacher, while playing with a bag filled with beans. The purpose of this exercise is to synchronize the body and brain.
This comes at a time when schools around the world are rushing to equip their classrooms with computers, and many politicians are saying that not doing so is simply stupid. Interestingly, the opposite point of view has become widespread in the epicenter of the high-tech economy, where some parents and educators are making it clear that school and computers do not mix.
Advocates of learning without IT technologies believe that computers suppress creative thinking, mobility, human relationships and attentiveness. These parents believe that when it comes time to introduce their children to the latest technology, they will always have the necessary skills and facilities at home to do so.
According to Anne Flynn, director of educational technology for the National School Board, computers are essential. “If schools have access to new technology and can afford it, but don't use it, they are depriving our children of what they may deserve,” Flynn said.
Paul Thomas, a former teacher and Furman University professor who has written 12 books on government education, disagrees, arguing that it is better for education to use as few computers as possible. “Education is first and foremost a human experience,” says Paul Thomas. “Technology is a distraction when literacy, numeracy and critical thinking are needed.”
When proponents of equipping classrooms with computers argue that computer literacy is necessary to meet the challenges of our time, parents who believe that computers are not needed are surprised: why rush if it is all so easy to learn? “It's super easy. It's like learning how to brush your teeth, says Mr. Eagle, a Silicon Valley fellow. “At Google and places like that, we make technology as stupidly simple as possible. I don’t see any reason why a child wouldn’t be able to master them when he gets older.”
The students themselves do not consider themselves deprived of high technology. They watch movies from time to time and play computer games. Children say they even get disappointed when they see their parents or relatives entangled in various devices.
Orad Kamkar, 11, said he recently went to visit his cousins and found himself surrounded by five people who were playing with their gadgets, not paying any attention to him or each other. He had to shake each of them by the hand and say, “Hey guys, I’m here!”
Fin Heilig, 10, whose father works at Google, said he likes learning with pencils and pens more than with a computer because he can see his progress years later. “In a few years, I will be able to open my first notebooks and see how bad I used to write. But with a computer this is impossible, all the letters are the same,” says Fin. “Besides, if you know how to write on paper, you can write even if water is spilled on your computer or the electricity goes out.”
