Kate Middleton is worried about how computers can affect family life and the growth of children. A new essay put on the website for her C...
A new essay put on the website for her Centre for Early Childhood on Thursday, October 9 by the Princess of Wales calls phones a "distraction, fragmenting our focus" and the cause of a "epidemic of disconnection." In the essay she wrote with Harvard University Professor Robert Waldinger, Kate, 43, says, "We must also acknowledge that new technology plays a complex and often troubling role in this epidemic of disconnection." The essay is called "The Power of Human Connection in a Distracted World," and it was written with Waldinger.
This is the latest step in the princess's long-term goal to help parents and babies in their first few years.
"Our phones, tablets, and computers have turned into constant distractions that break up our focus and keep us from giving others the full attention that relationships need," she says.
Our minds are split between dozens of apps, alerts, and feeds even though we're in the same room. We're there in person, but our minds are elsewhere, so we can't fully interact with the people in front of us.
Kate is the mother of Prince George (12), Princess Charlotte (10), and Prince Louis (7), and she thinks that "technological interference" makes it harder to give others "our undivided attention." "Yet, more and more, it's the hardest gift to give," she writes later in the essay. "When we check our phones during conversations, scroll through social media during family dinners or respond to emails while playing with our children, we’re not just being distracted; we are withdrawing the basic form of love that human connection requires."
Kate joined the argument after her 43-year-old husband, Prince William, said that the couple is "very strict" about how their three kids use computers. William recently talked to Eugene Levy about the Apple TV+ show The Reluctant Traveler. He said, "We sit and talk, it's really important."
"We're very strict that none of our kids have phones," he said. Princess Kate knows that it can be hard to keep kids from using phones and other tech, especially for parents whose kids grew up in a digital world. But one of the most important parts of her strategy is the idea that a person's early years are the most important for their long-term health.
Neuroscience, which she writes with Waldinger, has shown that a child's brain develops most quickly in the first few years of life. This is also the time when the child needs the most care from others. She says that time "is the golden chance to build strong foundations for future life outcomes."
In the years from pregnancy to age five, Kate writes, "our brains grow and change the fastest and deepest. An amazing 1,000,000 new neural connections are made every second." A second thing she talks about is how families don't have dinner together as much as they used to. "This is something we know has a huge effect on child development," she says. "Friends are less likely to come over." Kate goes on in the essay to say, "We are less likely to join clubs and community groups."
Even scarier, Kate writes, "more people than ever say they have no one they can talk to about what's going on in their life."