Seriously I find myself on my phone and not interacting with my kids at times and I am super sensitive about phones.
I don't allow phones during meals, during family time and not when someone is talking with you. I break my own rules a ton :(
The other guy does not really let his kids around phones or tablets, they can watch TV, but thats also heavily regulated. But usually when we are around, they hang out with us and work on cars. Its really fun to teach them stuff about cars even if they are only 5 and 6. When we sit and have meals, I try to engage them as much as possible, talk about music, and math.
But yes I agree with you, phones are really killing it. Have you tried deleting apps you like to use? Switch to web apps with difficult logins?
on a side note does anyone else find those youtube videos for kids hella creepy?
That definitely makes me sick.
Arguably, what they’re doing is better than sitting in front of a passive device like a TV. Sure, they could be spending their time more wisely, but the kids need some sort of down time (exactly how much time is for the parents to figure out).
But the example given was of a child semi-actively watching ads, for hours and hours. Is that better than watching, say, Sesame Street?
Yes, and there was a recent discussion on HN about it, too [0].
I like the idea of turning on a ringtone so I can be reached but also not always surfing youtube/facebook/hacker news/etc. I don't know why but getting my computer out to do something seems a lot more effort and I'm less likely to do it.
I'm going to try this out tonight and go for 2 weeks to see how it goes. I'll re-assess then.
Thanks your comment was the impetuous I needed to figure out a way to do it without getting rid of the smart phone the rest of the day.
This works well for me (except weird quirks eg I sometimes take my laptop to the toilet). It forces me to consciously choose to "dive in" (because opening a computer takes a bit more time as well as physical space).
I suspect you meant this within the context of your own life, but historically that's almost certainly untrue. 50 years ago you likely would've had a job doing much more grueling work in less comfortable conditions. Conversely, your ex-wife would not have had an income producing job at all and after the age of 4-5 would've sent the kid outside for significant portions of the day.
My youngest is nearly 2 and can hold his own on a parking field, at a playpark, in a woodland, digging in the garden, etc.. Seems early 20th Century kids would be out there at an earlier age, certainly working class kids.
If a parent is reading a book, I totally respect that! You don't see lots of people walking and reading a book everywhere they go, staring at a book to avoid social conversation, or unable to put it down for more than 6 minutes... phones just seem to takeover the brain, like TV but worse.
Anyway, point being, they did the same study but with parents using smartphones, and babies reacted in exactly the same fashion (distress)