Apple CEO Tim Cook: I don't want my nephew on a social network
- Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke out Friday about the overuse of technology, saying he wouldn't allow his nephew to use social networks.
- Cook is the latest in a long line of tech executives and others in the industry who have raised concerns about the downsides of technology products and services.
- A former Facebook executive recently charged that social media is "destroying how society works," and the coinventor of the iPhone said Apple and other tech firms need to do more to address the concerns.
Add Apple CEO Tim Cook to the list of tech luminaries who are warning about the potential risks of modern technology.
Speaking at a school in England on Friday, Cook said he didn't want his nephew to use social media, according to The Guardian. He also argued that the use of tech in schools should be limited.
"I don't have a kid, but I have a nephew that I put some boundaries on," Cook said, according to the Guardian. "There are some things that I won't allow; I don't want them on a social network."
He continued: "I don't believe in overuse [of technology]. I'm not a person that says we've achieved success if you're using it all the time ... I don't subscribe to that at all."
And while technology companies such as Apple have for years pushed their products on schools, Cook acknowledged that sometimes an iPad is inappropriate in the classroom.
"There are are still concepts that you want to talk about and understand," he said, according to the Guardian report. "In a course on literature, do I think you should use technology a lot? Probably not."
The tech industry is getting worried about what it has built
In recent months, growing numbers of tech executives and others in the industry have expressed concerns about the impact of technology on society and human minds, as research has pointed to links between mental health and tech usage. Children who use smartphones for three hours a day or more are much more likely to be suicidal, and and an eighth-grader's risk for depression jumps 27% when they frequently uses social media.
Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, charged that social networks are exploiting human "vulnerability," warning: "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."
"In the back, deep, deep recesses of our mind, we kind of knew something bad could happen," Palihapitiya said, although he later walked back aspects of his remarks after they attracted significant international media attention.
And Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook and Google, has been increasingly vocal in his criticisms of those companies.
"The people who run Facebook and Google are good people, whose well-intentioned strategies have led to horrific unintended consequences," he told The Guardian in October. He continued: "The problem is that there is nothing the companies can do to address the harm unless they abandon their current advertising models."
Apple itself is drawing scrutiny
Apple itself has recently come under significant criticism regarding how its products affect children. After two major shareholders publicly raised concerns that kids were becoming addicted to iPhones, the company promised to introduce new features to help combat the issue.
Meanwhile, Tony Fadell, cocreator of the iPod and iPhone, lumped Apple in with other tech giants when he charged that the industry wasn't doing enough to tackle tech addiction.
"Apple Watches, Google Phones, Facebook, Twitter - they've gotten so good at getting us to go for another click, another dopamine hit," he said in a tweet. "They now have a responsibility & need to start helping us track & manage our digital addictions across all usages - phone, laptop, TV, etc."
Cook's steps to limit his nephew's use of technology resemble those of other tech executives. Former Microsoft mogul Bill Gates capped his daughter's screen time and refused to let his children get smartphones until they were 14. And Steve Jobs, Cook's predecessor as CEO of Apple, said right after the iPad was released he had banned his kids from using it.
"We limit how much technology our kids use at home," he said.