Letter to the Editor: Luschas: Screen time ban starts at home

Journalist Tom Savage’s recent article on school cell phone bans has inspired us to share our personal perspective on this topic. First off, you have to understand that we are PhDs in science and engineering who worked in Silicon Valley for 17 years. We helped build the infrastructure for this technology – working on the first WIFI, Bluetooth, Cell Phone, Backplane and Server chips, communication systems, and protocols. We currently have a senior and a freshman in high school, who have no video games, no modern smart phones, no social media, and even no TV/streaming service. They have basic phones with the ability to call and text. They have access to apps only for school-related sports and music messages.

In Silicon Valley, we were in good company – many tech parents don’t let their kids have tech at all or severely limit screen time. This includes a long list of Big Tech executive names like Evan Spiegel (co-founder and CEO of Snapchat), Sundar Pichai (Google CEO), Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO), Susan Wojicki (former CEO YouTube), Bill Gates (co-founder Microsoft), Steve Jobs (founder of Apple), Peter Thiel (co-founder Paypal). Why would the very people who understand and promote technology not let their kids have it?

While we can’t speak for Big Tech celebrities, we can share the primary reason that we don’t let our kids have it. Some of the smartest people we know in Silicon Valley – PhDs from Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, etc. – work as ‘engagement engineers.’ Their job is to make sure you and your children spend as much time as possible on their app, video game, social media platform, etc. Many of them are not only experts in technology, but also experts in both addiction and mind control. Would we put our teenagers up against a team of 100s of the brightest minds in the country? Can our teens exercise self-control and make healthy choices facing that kind of brain power on the other side? Can we ourselves exercise self-control against this tech and psychology dream team? We don’t think anyone can.  (Watch the documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ if you want to hear other tech people who think this way too.)

Upon moving to South Dakota, we have found very few parents who share our tech philosophy. We have been told on several occasions that we’re ruining our kids by not letting them have social media/ technology. It seems parents would rather send their kids to therapy and medicate them for anxiety/depression than take away their phones/devices. We get it – once a kid is addicted, it’s the same withdrawal process as with alcohol or drugs. It’s incredibly difficult and takes time, strength, determination, and often professional tech-detox camps. Frankly, it’s much easier never to let kids have Big Tech in the first place.

We’re thankful to have freedom in South Dakota –including freedom to think for ourselves and parent our kids as we see fit – even if the community thinks we’re crazy. 

Susan & Manuel Luschas

Brandon