We don’t want people using our phones too much’: Apple boss Tim Cook warns customers NOT to use iPhones too often and to set ‘hard rails’ for kids to reduce screen time.

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Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said people shouldn’t spend too long on their phones

‘We don’t want that. We provide tools so people don’t do that,’ Cook said

Apple sold 232 million iPhones in 2022 – as the average American adult’s screen time reached a new record of 4.5 hours per day.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said the firm which sold 230million iPhones last year does not want people using them ‘too much’ – as screen time among US adults hit new records.

‘We don’t want people using our phones too much. We’re not incentivized for that. We don’t want that. We provide tools so people don’t do that,’ Cook said.

The tech giant, currently valued at $2.62trillion, sold an estimated 232.2 iPhones in 2022, bringing in revenue of $205.4billion.

Cook told GQ: ‘Kids are born digital, they’re digital kids now. And it is, I think, really important to set some hard rails around it.

‘We make technology to empower people to be able to do things they couldn’t do, to create things they couldn’t create, to learn things they couldn’t learn. And I mean, that’s really what drives us.’

Apple CEO Tim Cook said: ‘We don’t want people using our phones too much. We’re not incentivized for that’

Phone use by Americans continues to increase and the average adult in the US now spends about 4.5 hours per day looking at their phone. It’s projected to increase further next year

A recent study said adults in the US spend and average of 270 minutes – 4.5 hours – per day on their phones. That’s up from 225 minutes per day in 2019.

Average phone usage – not including during calls – is projected to reach 279 minutes per day among American adults by 2024.

A recent report by Data.ai finds that humans spend a combined 4.1trillion hours – or 470million years – staring at their phone screens in 2022.

While many see benefits in smartphones allowing a person to be connected to the rest of the world at any given time, research shows the devices could harm our mental and physical health.

Cook said Apply tries to ‘get people tools in order to help them put the phone down’.

‘Because my philosophy is, if you’re looking at the phone more than you’re looking in somebody’s eyes, you’re doing the wrong thing. So we do things like Screen Time. I don’t know about you, but I pretty religiously look at my report,’ he said.

Frequent use of smartphones has been linked to many potential harms. A 2017 study by Turkish researchers found that university students who were addicted to their phones are more likely to suffer from loneliness or aggression.

With loneliness comes mental health issues, and a 2021 study by Israeli researchers linked excessive smartphone use to anxiety, depression and related problems such as shyness and low self-esteem.

These participants were also more likely to report poor eating habits, further increasing their risk of suffering dietary conditions.

The tech giant, currently valued at $2.62 trillion, sold an estimated 232.2 iPhones in 2022, bringing in revenue of $205.4 billion.

Cook told GQ : ‘Kids are born digital, they’re digital kids now. And it is, I think, really important to set some hard rails around it’

People addicted to their smartphones will also spend less time exercising and taking part in other physical activities – leading to reduced physical fitness levels, the same study finds.

While some of these issues are directly related to use of social media apps like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, smartphone addiction is known to keep children inside and lead to the development of poor habits.

Blue light emitted by the devices is also known to cause issues sleeping – with experts warning smartphones are a key piece to a growing crisis of sleep deprivation among teens.

The prevalence of smart devices has also led to the phenomena of ‘iPad babies’ – children who spend nearly all waking hours attached to a screen.

These children will sometimes show addictive behavior at extremely young ages, with their being reports of violent, hours-long, tantrums from children who have devices removed from them.

Some experts also fear this generation of children will have a harder time making friends when they grow up as they have under-developed in-person communication skills.

 

Source:DailyMail

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