I have a 2 year old daughter and even though I intuitively know it's important to set a good example, I've already been shocked to the extent this is true.
My daughter loves grabbing our phones and watching whatever she can pull up on them, dialing people. If you take it away she gets upset. At first I was thinking, wow phones are very addictive on a primal level, she's addicted to just the flashy screens.
I think the flashy screen being tempting might be a little true, but then I came to a different conclusion about why she was so fascinated with the phone.
I noticed she also "changes" her stuffed animals diaper including pretending to apply rash cream, pretends to read books laying around she's seen me read, fidgets with the same household items she's seen me fidget with. That's when I realized what may be obvious to people experienced with kids - they constantly imitate the adults in their lives.
So my daughter was probably obsessed with staring at a phone because she saw her parents obsessed with staring at their phones and wanted to imitate them.
Of course this may be more relevant for very young kids moreso than teenagers, where the smart phone addictions work at a higher more cognitive level. But it did drill home the message that our children can be a reflection of ourselves so if you want to improve their lives, improve your own.
Kids aren't addicted to the flashy screen first. The first order issue is they want to be like you. That want to be like you soooo much. With every fiber of their being.
Nah, they're super enticed by it. For the first two years of my kids life, we had no screens in the house that he ever saw. We had old Nokia brick phones, no TV, and we only used a computer when he was sleeping.
Regardless, the moment he saw an iPad in the library, he wanted to stare at it and fiddle with it for an hour. Even to the point of completing ignoring the model train set which he loves.
Considering the scale interpretation differences, it would be impossible for a child to not be enamoured with an iPad. Like us seeing a giant sized 4k screen for the first time, except even better for them since they can walk around with their portable giant screen!
Today's devices and apps are designed to be addictive in a way that my old Commodore wasn't. Of course it was designed to be appealing, I don't deny that. But I doubt that ProTracker or Sensible Soccer had marketing teams focused on maximising "screen time".
The point of the post I replied to was that kids are attracted to tech because they see the parents absorbed in it. I don't think this is the main reason.
The way the commodore 64 was so addictive even while not being designed to do so helps prove that point. Most of our parents thought we were wasting our time and should read a book or watch TV depending on the parent in question. Of course we didn't. In fact those other things were more time wasting IMO. We were learning to create.
That this obsession turned into great careers and changed the world (sadly not always for the better as you describe!) was overlooked back then.
But kids just love tech just like they love rockets and dinosaurs, they don't need their parents setting the example.
Definitely. My children loved phones even at an age where they couldn't care less about the screen.
I pictured it in my mind like the 2001 monoliths -- these black rectangular things that hold all of the knowledge, and around which all sorts of social behaviour arise. Of course they're fascinating!
My daughter loves grabbing our phones and watching whatever she can pull up on them, dialing people. If you take it away she gets upset. At first I was thinking, wow phones are very addictive on a primal level, she's addicted to just the flashy screens.
I think the flashy screen being tempting might be a little true, but then I came to a different conclusion about why she was so fascinated with the phone.
I noticed she also "changes" her stuffed animals diaper including pretending to apply rash cream, pretends to read books laying around she's seen me read, fidgets with the same household items she's seen me fidget with. That's when I realized what may be obvious to people experienced with kids - they constantly imitate the adults in their lives.
So my daughter was probably obsessed with staring at a phone because she saw her parents obsessed with staring at their phones and wanted to imitate them.
Of course this may be more relevant for very young kids moreso than teenagers, where the smart phone addictions work at a higher more cognitive level. But it did drill home the message that our children can be a reflection of ourselves so if you want to improve their lives, improve your own.