Despite building an increasingly screen-focused world, billionaire tech leaders are keeping their own children away from the tech they helped create.
As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video.
At the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, early Facebook investor and billionaire Peter Thiel joined Chen among the ranks of tech leaders who are setting strict limits on screens. Thiel said he only lets his two young children use screens for an hour-and-a-half per week, a revelation that prompted audible gasps from the audience.
Other tech CEOs, including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, and Tesla’s Elon Musk, have also spoken about limiting their children’s access to devices. Gates has said he did not give his children smartphones until age 14 and banned phones at the dinner table entirely. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, in 2018, said he limits his child to the same 1.5 hours per week of screen time as Thiel. And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.
Yet, as the trials against social media companies continue and country after country moves toward legislating what Silicon Valley’s billionaires have quietly practiced for years, the private behavior of the world’s most powerful tech figures stands in contrast to what they’re promoting and building
Duh. You think the CEO of Kraft feeds his kids mac and cheese from a box?
How cute. They think the things billionaires say for ammo in the evential lawsuit are actually true.
This isn’t new. I remember fifteen years ago some Silicon Valley app engineers forbade their children from playing the games that were being developed.
It’s because they’re engineered to use your psychology against you. This is by design.
Fucking degenerate assholes, pushing drugs knowing full well how harmful it is.
YouTube cofounder Steve Chen said at a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last year that he wouldn’t want his kids consuming only short-form content, noting that it might be better to limit kids to videos longer than 15 minutes.
I hope this is introduced at the LA trial in some form that demonstrates the why.
I should not be amazed, but I still am, at the entire lack of morality that tech entrepreneurs have post dotcom bursting.
That should be enough evidence for the rest of the world…
Does musk even see any of his kids often enough to set rules?
I say bullshit, these people aren’t involved enough in their kids lives to even know if their “1 hour a day” or whatever rules are happening. Their kids are absolutely doing whatever the fuck they want.
And finally, Musk, who bought the social media company X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, said it “might’ve been a mistake” to not set any rules on social media for his children.
That would require him to spend more time around his children than photoshoots and using them as human shields
The most disturbing part is these ghouls reproduced.
the antichrist guy
Of course you do hey do but millions of us keep eating the shit they put in front of us, me included.
Never get high on your own supply
First of all these billionaires can afford to replace for their kids; what social media is with actual socialising that is destroyed by fear, nimbyism, and systematic destruction of third places for normal people. that’s what private cities and walled off estates are for. They will continue to enjoy the fruits of socialism while selling capitalism for everybody else.
This is not a force to be triffled with or dismissed as so easy to escape from.
