So, this week Apple revealed that they will be releasing an Apple Watch in the next few months - which is basically a teeny, tiny iPhone for your wrist. Whoop! Technology for all!
But where’s our tech obsession going to end? A study, published last month, of 11 and 12-year-olds found that removing digital devices, including televisions, for five days saw an improvement in social skills. So will our great-great-great grandkids be born with hunchbacks, a permanent iPhone frown and an inability to deal with IRL contact? WILL NO-ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?
Well apparently Steve Jobs did - in a conversation with US journalist Bilton in 2010, the year before his death, Jobs revealed that he didn’t let his kids use iPads and generally restricted the amount of technology they were exposed to. This is despite the fact that he could have made an entire house made out of iPads if that had taken his fancy (although that doesn’t sound like a very structurally sound idea for a house, TBH, especially in San Francisco, which is on the San Andreas Fault Line, you know).
His biographer Walter Isascson later added ‘every evening Steve made a point of having dinner at the big long table in their kitchen, discussing books and history and a variety of things.’ Which makes us wonder, if Steve Jobs, the godfather of modern technology (that’s not hyperbole is it?) realised that there was a time to step away from the iPhone, do the rest of us need to take note? It’s already been well documented that modern technology can disrupt our sleep and effect our moods.
We’re not going to suggest a total digital detox - how else would you arrange to meet friends (IRL), do your job or indeed read The Debrief. But how about a Jobs-esque rule about no iPhones at the table when you’re having dinner with friends? Once you’ve got over the fact that your phone’s going to sit in your bag unwatched for two whole hours you might find that you have a nice time talking about other stuff.
Or maybe replace your nightly Netflix binge on your iPad with an old-school book for a week, and don’t allow yourself to check your phone until you’ve been out of bed for half an hour each morning. It’s a tiny thing that won’t make any real difference to the rest of your life, but it might make you sleep better, feel calmer and stop doing that squinty eye thing we all get when we’ve been staring at an LCD screen for too long.
After all, if Steve Jobs, who probably had the biggest Apple staff discount known to man could do it, we probably can.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter @rebecca_hol
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.