Imagine discovering Mr Kellogg had barred his cereals from his family’s breakfast table. Or the makers of Calpol wouldn’t give it to their own feverish youngsters.
Well, that’s exactly what’s happening now among the super-rich technology titans who develop the phones, tablets and apps our children are glued to.
These are the people who’ve witnessed first-hand how much ingenuity goes into engineering devices and games to make them as addictive as possible to young minds – and the damage that can do.
Waldorf School (pictured) is a proudly tech-free institution right in the middle of Silicon Valley
Naturally, they don’t want their own precious little ones frazzling their brains hour after hour, so they’re banning them from using the screens they’re selling to everyone else’s children.
Remarkably, a school that trumpets traditional teaching – blackboards, text books, pencils, paper and outdoor play – has become the most sought after destination for the offspring of the digital elite in America. Waldorf School is a proudly tech-free institution right in the middle of Silicon Valley.
Because the growing consensus among those at the heart of the tech revolution is that trawling endlessly through phones – they call it ‘zombie scrolling’ – or spending hours staring at screens, stunts young minds and destroys attention spans. Not to mention causing sleeplessness, social isolation and depression.
While delighted to hook your children and mine, those gliding up to the Waldorf’s school gates in Teslas and Range Rovers each morning are choosing not to risk it with their own.
Chamath Palihapitiya, a billionaire former Facebook executive, refuses to let his three youngsters use mobiles or tablets. He says: ‘I do not want children that only know how to interface with the world through a screen.’ Well, neither do the rest of us.
I rue the day I absent-mindedly let my children – aged five and 14 – kill time playing on my phone. It’s now our number one source of friction, often turning bedtime and homework into a battleground.
The full impact of this screen addiction is not known, but research suggests limited periods exploring the internet with a parent is fine, as are things that stretch the mind, such as writing code. Building-type games are better than zombie scrolling. Yet, when I asked a child psychotherapist to recommend a safe number of minutes a day, she shot back: ‘How about zero?’
A former Google executive has revealed how tech companies employ the world’s brightest minds to engineer their apps to be as unputdownable as possible. YouTube learns the videos your child likes – then queues up a stream of similar ones to play automatically.
Technology titans who develop the phones, tablets and apps our children are glued to aren't letting their kids use them because they know how harmful and addictive they are
Snapchat has a feature called Streaks which shows the number of consecutive days children send snaps to each other. An hourglass pops up if you’re close to 24 hours without a snap and then bang, your score is back to zero. I was in the car with a friend when her 11-year-old became hysterical, squealing ‘my streaks’,’ as she realised we had no signal and she was close to the 24 hours cut-off point.
The favourite in our house is an online game called Fortnite. It’s so insidiously clever that my eldest says abandoning a game before the end is ‘like ripping up a book manuscript in front of the author as he’s on the final paragraph’.
To him and his buddies, it’s that bad. Psychologists say these games release the pleasure hormone dopamine – the same one that gets people hooked on drugs. ‘Think of the pleasure as more akin to cocaine than sweeties,’ said one.
To me, this all feels like a repetition of the multi-billion-pound marketing strategies once employed by big tobacco companies to snare the young, knowing they’d be hooked for life.
Learning that the very people who brought us this technology are shunning it in their own homes is galling beyond words. The hypocrisy is as outrageous as their bank balances.
Sorry Ant, it’s a big thumbs down
I hope Ant McPartlin hasn’t been watching I’m A Celebrity on his hols. For he’d see his 30-year partner- in-crime, Dec Donnelly, soaring to new heights as a solo star.
Suddenly Ant and Dec seems very cold potatoes as Dec reveals himself to be not only the brains but the comedic heart of our most successful TV double act. My family has been in fits of laughter at his impromptu flights of fancy, not least his dad-dancing to the Spice Girls.
Ant McPartlin has had to watch his TV partner Dec Donnelly soaring to new heights without him on I'm A Celebrity since battling addictions following a split from his wife Lisa (together at their wedding in 2006)
Ant’s downfall is a textbook case of how fame and fortune can be lost in a nanosecond. ‘Troubled Ant’ struggled with painkiller addiction, saw the collapse of his marriage to Lisa Armstrong and quickly moved on to the couple’s former PA. Far worse, he could have killed a young family after drunkenly crashing his Mini. After a record drink-drive fine, some ham-fisted spin and a ‘my hell’ story with a tabloid, the whole saga was tied up in a nice PR package.
What Ant and his publicists had not counted on was the crazed world of social media where the mob rules. Like at Rome’s Colosseum, the masses have the final word. The thumb is either up or down. In Dec’s case it’s up – but it’s definitely down on Ant.
No Prince Charming
Princess Beatrice is dating millionaire property developer’ Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who was living with the mother of his child when he met the royal
Princess Beatrice has been whisked off her feet by dashing ‘millionaire property developer’ Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, known to friends as Edo, after romance blossomed at Eugenie’s wedding.
Fergie is ‘thrilled’ and dreaming of another big day. It all seemed too good to be true – and it is...
According to friends, Edo, 35, has a two-year-old son and was living with the mother, a gorgeous Chinese-American architect called Dara Huang (pictured) when he went to the Royal Wedding.
He and Dara, 37, had been engaged for three years. Now she’s left his London home, but races back there after work each night to cuddle and bath her little boy.
If I were Fergie, I wouldn’t be planning a return to St George’s Chapel with this ‘Prince Charming’ any time soon
Unflappable Fiona
It’s not just Fiona Bruce’s clipped head-girl tones and impish humour that make her a perfect Question Time host. It’s that nothing fazes her – not even an unexpected intervention as she gave birth to daughter Mia.
She recalls: ‘The labour went on for ages, and they asked if they could bring some students in. My legs are in stirrups, right at the point of the pushing – so a bit of huffing and puffing goes on, then there’s a little silence when you catch your breath before the next contraction.
BBC newsreader Fiona Bruce is set to replace David Dimbleby as host of Question Time
‘And just in that little well of silence this voice plopped into it, from somewhere around my feet, saying, “This probably isn’t the right time to mention it, but you are my favourite presenter.” ’
Ever the pro, Fiona replied: ‘That’s nice to hear, thank you.’
She’ll find the Question Time bear pit a total doddle.
This breathless passage from Michelle Obama’s autobiography, about falling for her President-to-be, tickled me so much I read it out loud to my husband. ‘As soon as I allowed myself to feel anything for Barack, the feelings came rushing – a toppling blast of lust, gratitude, fulfilment, wonder.’ Is that how it was for you, my husband chortled. I won’t share my reply…
After his success in the BBC drama Bodyguard, Richard Madden is fighting off producers, as well as female fans.
He’s had talks with show creator Jed Mercurio about a sequel, but says he will only do it if there’s a strong enough storyline. That’s actor speak for: If the cheque’s big enough…
Linkhienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/25/tina-weaver-billionaire-hypocrites-are-frazzling-the-brains-of-our-children/
Main photo article Imagine discovering Mr Kellogg had barred his cereals from his family’s breakfast table. Or the makers of Calpol wouldn’t give it to their own feverish youngsters.
Well, that’s exactly what’s happening now among the super-rich technology titans who develop the phones, tablets and apps our childr...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/25/01/6605352-6425657-image-m-12_1543109045522.jpg
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