We all know the iPad is ideal for young kids and old ladies: It is much more intuitive than a standard computer. Pensioners are ecstatic in minutes and children can become familiar with a tablet two years earlier than they would have become used to a PC. Swipe, swipe, swipe is manna to the toddler’s podgy digits to the extent that I have seen infants attempting to swipe the television screen in the hope of changing channels.
But all this precocity comes at a price. The iPad and similar tablets are addictive. Kids exposed to them at a tender age are becoming addicted to the point where any attempt to remove the magic slate results in tantrums and severe distress. As this article in The Telegraph outlines, children as young as four are requiring phsycological treatment to cure them of the disease.
It isn’t only toddlers, though. I’ve seen elderly people become completely besotted with Skyping, browsing and emailing on their iPad. This usually comes after decades of disdain for computers: “You’ll not get me on one of those things”. An iPad cures the phobia and ancients can metomorph from anti to pro within the course of a day.
Perhaps Apple should be distributing iPads in a plain box.
by Mike Evans, 30 April 2013