He was responsible for a huge amount of the tech we use today. But Steve Jobs was a low-tech parent.
He gave us the iPhone.
He gave us the iPad, the iPod and the iMac.
But he rarely gave any of these things to his kids.
Steve Jobs was a low-tech parent who kept a careful watch over his kids screen time and apparently, according to an article published in the New York Times, didn’t even let his kids play with an iPad.
Who is this man of contradictions? And what stopped him from making good use of the technology that he delivered into the world for the other things that he delivered into the world – namely his kids? He wasn't the only tech entrepreneur to follow this approach, either.
What we’d like to know is what did Steve Jobs do when his kids were going crazy in a doctor’s waiting room? Or when they were on a long haul flight? Or even just when he and his wife wanted to have dinner out somewhere and the kids needed some help to sit still for a bit longer than usual?
Forgive me for sounding cynical and somewhat harassed, but hearing stories about Steve Jobs being a low-tech parent has a somewhat insidious undertone. The undertone being that there is something inherently ‘harmful’ about kids using technology and hey, if Steve Jobs didn’t do it, why are you doing it and don’t you feel bad about your parenting right now?
While we’re all for setting careful boundaries around the appropriate use of technology for kids, but banning it altogether, i.e. never letting your kids use an iPad, is surely a step too far? What about the interactive learning possibilities inherent in the eBooks and apps that are available on an iPad? Why would you choose to not include technology in a well-rounded kids' life?
What do you think about Steve Jobs’s low-tech parenting? How much tech is too much tech, and is there such a thing as too little?
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