It's not just us gadget fans that care about the latest technology. Deep down in a dark Jekyll and Hyde-esque laboratory scientists and psychologists are closely watching the effect the latest devices have on our life.
Sometimes there results are useful; sometimes frightening and sometimes you think they have nothing better to do. In the case, I'll let you decide.
The latest study has suggested that the iPhone is now the choice of toy for toddlers (rather than plastic trains and dolls.) Experts worry their development is hampered by this “screen time.”
According to a series of 'interviews' on toddlers and iPhone usage in the New York Times: Natasha Sykes, a mother of two in Atlanta, remembers the first time her daughter, Kelsey, now 3 1/2 but then barely 2 years old, held her husband’s iPhone.
“She pressed the button and it lit up. I just remember her eyes. It was like 'Whoa!
Kelsey would ask for [the iPhone]. Then she’d cry for it.
“It was like she’d always want the phone.”
Pretty creepy if you ask me. Do you think it's a conspiracy by Steve? Maybe he's paid off all the midwives to put Apple microchips in our babies.
It gets creepier.
"Ms. Sykes said. After a six-hour search one day, she and her husband found the iPhone tucked away under Kelsey’s bed. They laughed. But they also felt vague concern."
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychology professor at Temple University who specializes in early language development, sides claimed that research shows that children learn best through active engagement that helps them adapt, she said, and interacting with a screen doesn’t qualify. Pasek said she was "Struck on a recent visit to New York City by how many parents were handing over their iPhones to their little children in the subway."
But that hasn't put her off Apple's smartphone.”This is a magical phone,” she said. “I must admit I’m addicted to this phone.”
So what do you lot think? Are iPhone dangerous to our children?
Source:Gizmondo