![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.totsandtech.com\/postimgs\/iphone-bambini.jpg\" "\\"toddler")
Sitting in a Starbucks recently, we watched as a couple handed their iPhone to a toddler sitting in a stroller with them next to their table. They then continued their conversation with each other as the young child intently played with the phone.<\/p>\n
The scene reminded me of a recent study of mothers and their use of technology.<\/p>\n
The survey of 1,000 moms found that a quarter of them let their children interact with a mobile phone by time they\u2019re two years old.<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by The Parenting Group and BlogHer, Inc., found that by the age of four, 60 percent of children have used a computer, 32 percent have used a smartphone and 25 percent have used an iPod.<\/p>\n
So based on that research, the scene we witnessed in Starbucks could be considered somewhat normal.<\/p>\n
And in many cases, children are not using technology by themselves, with almost half of moms (45%) saying they watch YouTube videos together with their children.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the children who are digitally interacting, since the study found that 71 percent of mothers can\u2019t go more than a day without satisfying their Internet urges.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, when handing a mobile phone over to a toddler it likely is a smartphone, since \u00a0the devices can host many apps targeted to children.<\/p>\n
There are a wide range of free apps all the way from electronic coloring books, such as My Coloring Book, to those specifically for young children, such as Toddler Teasers Shapes.<\/p>\n
Parents also have the opportunity to pay for apps to be creative, such as Kids Doodle Pro or other painting capabilities such as those in Kids Finger Paint.<\/p>\n
And if the apps are not attention-holding, the parents may end up watching their high-priced smartphone being tossed into the air and onto the floor by a toddler wanting to see a parent scramble.<\/p>\n
At a very young age, members of a generation will learn digital uses of a mobile phone outside of just talking on it. And the activity can be highly interactive rather than passive, such as watching TV.<\/p>\n
Do you think parents should hand their phones over to their young ones to occupy them?\u00a0 Would you?<\/p>\n
Chuck Martin<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chuck Martin<\/a> is a New York Times business bestselling author. He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and Director of the Center for Media Research, MediaPost Communications. His latest book is The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sitting in a Starbucks recently, we watched as a couple handed their iPhone to a toddler sitting in a stroller with them next to their table. They then continued their conversation with each other as the young child intently played with the phone. The scene reminded me of a recent study of mothers and their … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-chuckmartin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3460"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3463,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3460\/revisions\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}