A new book says that not all of the “shaping” has been good.
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According to the WSJ …
Over the weekend, Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System — which control about $2 billion of Apple shares — sent a letter to Apple urging the company to “develop new software tools that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily and to study the impact of overuse on mental health.”
Apparently, they got the word that “obsessive teenage phone usage may be causing increased rates in teen depression and suicide and that phones are replacing old-fashioned human interaction.”
No kidding. We were all over this topic last fall.
Here’s a timely flashback …
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Last fall, when Apple celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the iPhone and launch of iPhone X, CEO Tim Cook boasted:
Having sold over one billion units and enabling millions of apps that have become essential to people’s daily routine …
The iPhone redefined how consumers live, work, communicate, and entertain.
I chalked it up as marketing hype, but then …
I started reading a recently released book (coincidence?) called iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood.
The author is Jean Twenge, a psychology prof with a specialty in “generational differences” who is credited with coining the newest generation “iGen”.
Prof Twenge agrees with Cook’s basic claim that the iPhone has redefined life.
But, she argues, not all of the redefinition is positive … specifically highlighting the decline in in-person social interaction and a sharp rise in mental health issues among iGens.
Let’s start at the beginning ….
