Tim Cook doesn’t think you should spend more time using your iPhone than you do talking to people.
“[…] if you’re looking at the phone more than you’re looking into someone’s eyes, you’re doing the wrong thing,” Tim Cook recently said, in an interview with GQ magazine. A kind of warning, from the Apple boss, to remind that having real interactions with other people is more important than staring at the screen of his iPhone. Moreover, he explains that this is why Apple launched Screen Time on iOS, to allow people to count and limit the time spent using its products.
And in this interview, Tim Cook confides that he personally monitors “quite religiously” the time he spends in front of his screen via this feature. He also suggests that limiting screen time is even more important for children. Since they are born with digital technology, it is important that firm limits are put in place.
“We don’t want people to use our phones too much,” Tim Cook also said, recalling that Apple is not rewarded if people spend too much time on their iPhones. As a reminder, the Screen Time feature on iOS was launched with the iOS 12 version of the operating system in 2018.
The right limit for screen time on iPhone?
At the time, the tech industry realized the dangers of overuse of technology on users’ mental health. And like Apple, Google launched an Android feature that monitors and limits screen time. Even Facebook and Instagram had launched digital wellness features, meant to encourage balanced relationships with technology, on its apps.
But if you don’t know what limit you should set for yourself, Tim Cook’s advice can help. In essence, you should spend more time having real conversations with people, than using your smartphone and its apps. Unfortunately, the Apple boss didn’t say what the specific self-imposed limit is.
Tim Cook’s revelations
The interview that the Apple boss gave with GQ includes quite a few revelations. For example, in this interview, Cook once again mentioned augmented reality. And he admitted that if Apple was once skeptical about this technology, it has since changed its mind. We also learn from this interview that Tim Cook reads “all” the emails he receives on addresses known to the general public.
He would get up at 5 am to read them and would find these unsolicited emails useful. This would be inspiring, as people write to Apple’s CEO to express what they think of the firm’s products.