Tech execs who raise their kids tech-free or limit their screen time (2020)
Screen <i>time</i> is only part of it. As a Digital Vegan I&#x27;m nore focused
on screen <i>quality</i>.<p>The newest command line user in our family is 7. I gave her a
Raspberry Pi last Christmas and loaded one thing; a python shell
&quot;PlayOS&quot; that I wrote to make everything a three or four letter
command. The idea is to improve her reading and writing&#x2F;typing by
putting everything she wants a few keystrokes away on the command
line.<p>So far we have:<p><pre><code>  music - plays a random tune from her music collection

  music abba - selects something more specific

  see - shows something visual, for example;

  see me - random photos from the holiday album

  see octonauts - an undersea cartoon plays

  read - stories and rhymes

  say - make the computer speak (festival - which she calls robot
  voice)
</code></pre>
Basically, each time she expresses an interest I add a python tuple
which is a parsing template like alias + exec. After that she
memorises the command. By 9 I expect her to have mastered a computer
by typing, including sending emails to mom and dad etc. When she&#x27;s had
enough she knows the poweroff command - which it&#x27;s own kind of fun.<p>Most of her friends drag their fingers over images on tablets.
They get into a tantrum if it&#x27;s taken away from them. They are
addicts before they are 10.<p>Hopefully I&#x27;m helping build a life-long skill, but I dread the day her
friends, pawing at screen like retarded monkeys, tell her that phones
are better :)<p>Yes, there are physiological reasons to limit screen time too. But
that&#x27;s not my threat model at present. Time to boredom on PlayOS is
always less than 1 hour.