My daughter was a creative genius, and then we bought her an iPhone
Buried lede:<p>> My daughter doesn’t return home from school until 6:30 pm and still has to eat, bathe, and get ready for bed.<p>Perhaps it is not just the iPhone, but <i>school taking up 100% of her time, energy, and attention</i> that is preventing her from pursuing creative interests? As a homeschooling parent whose kids have been in school at times, I see this first hand. School is <i>exhausting</i>. Between rising unnaturally early (which leaves kids tired), rushing and bustling kids on their daily commute, most of the daylight hours blocked for school then homework when you get home not to mention whatever homework the teachers decide to assign to <i>parents</i>, and did I mention the kids are exhausted by the end of the day due to early wake-up?<p>Compulsory daily full-time school for children may be good for some things but it would take a lot to convince me that it increases their creativity. When my kids home school they will spend a lot of time playing roblox or whatever, but then they'll spend hours playing outdoors, decide to do a cooking project that takes all morning–currently one of mine is getting into "bushcraft" and he'll watch hours of videos about making fires, carving etc. before putting the tips it into practice (safely) during times outdoors, where he spends hours and hours. Then he'll come back, play roblox for an hour, then help clean up and put the younger kids to bed.<p>I am concerned about over-use/addictive nature of computers & phones, but I think it's myopic to see your otherwise creative child tired and craving mental distraction and say "aha the <i>phone</i> is the problem." Step back and look at the whole picture.<p>Edit: I must admit I commented after reading only half the article (shame on me). It does in fact seem like her daughter has a phone-use problem. What I say above remains true, however.