Shortly before he passed away, Steve Jobs was asked by a New York Times journalist: “So, your kids must love the iPad?” Jobs said he banned his kids from using an iPad. “We don’t allow the iPad in the home. We think it’s too dangerous for them in effect.” Along the same lines, Bill Gates said, “My kids get limited computer time.” Gates also held off on providing his kids with cell phones until they turned 14, but Melinda Gates wished they had waited longer and not allowed their teenage children to have cell phones. Apple’s current CEO, Tim Cook, noted: “I don’t want my nephew on a social network.”1

Often those who are the most wary of a thing are the people closest to it. Many of the technologists who know how phones really work have decided they don’t want their own children anywhere near the devices they themselves have created. Within the high-profile community of Silicon Valley, a region-wide consensus has emerged: “The benefits of screens as a learning tool are overblown, and the risks for addiction and stunting development seem high.” 2

Leading Christian research specialist George Barna has identified how media exposure has become the most widespread and serious addiction in the world today, and in his book Glow Kids: How Screen Addiction Is Hijacking Our Kids, addictions specialist Dr. Nicholas Kardaras writes, “I’ve worked with hundreds of heroin addicts… and what I can say is that it’s easier to treat a heroin addict than a true screen addict.” Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and current CEO of 3D Robotics, said, “On the scale between candy and crack cocaine, [screens are] closer to crack cocaine. We thought we could control it… this is beyond our power to control. This is going straight to the pleasure centres of the brain.” Anderson, who sent his children to a private elementary school, noticed the administration initially introduced iPads and smart whiteboards, only to see the classrooms “descend into chaos and then pull back from it all.”3

Top computer and software engineers at tech companies, such as Google and Apple, believe in zero screen time for their children, to the point that many have their nannies sign contracts confirming they will keep phones and tablets hidden from their children, TVs off, and allow absolutely no screen time.4 Many of these tech experts send their children to Silicon Valley’s most elite private school: The Waldorf School of the Peninsula, where they emphasize getting outdoors, hiking, gardening, exploring in the woods, and reading books. Their policy is that children should not be exposed to electronic media in their daily lives; neither should they watch television, movies, or videos, play video games, or use computers. Additionally, exposure to radio and recorded music should be limited. Facebook executive Athena Chavarria says she lives by the mantra that the last child in the class to get a phone wins.5

A study in Denmark where teens and young adults went off social media for one week yielded the following results: 36% drop in loneliness, 33% drop in depression, and a 36% drop in anxiety.

Recently, René and I have been sharing in churches throughout Canada messages for young people, and families with young children, focusing on strategies for using technology and how to identify whether you are more likely to be negatively impacted by social media, offering solutions to help children, youth, and people of all ages who wish to control their technology. Many have had their eyes opened to practical approaches to controlling rather than being controlled by these powerful devices.

If you would like to invite us to come to your church to conduct a program like this, please, contact us at: information@iiw.ca Alternatively, you can write to us at: It Is Written Canada, Box 2010, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7V4, or call us at: (905) 404-6510.

– Mike Lemon