Tablets and smartphones are designed at every level to be devices for consuming (or being consumed by?) content. And if you do want to create things, they are terrible tools for that.
Even if it is a terrible tool for my purpose, I'd still want my kids to try (under my supervision) and find out the correct way to use it. Then they will be able to judge for themselves the pitfall of those tools.
But yeah, my kid will not have a smartphone/tablet until they are at least 12. It's going to be pen and paper first, then a potato computer (gotta be Linux, they can try installing Wine to play games I guess)
I have a favorite comparison between learning how to use technical devices and learning how to use woodworking tools. You have to start out with the hammer, the chisel, the handsaw for small things first. And then learn to use the lathe, the drill, the bandsaw. Jumping straight to the big tool give you the big risk of losing a few fingers.
I commend your caution, but if an adult with full faculties available to them has determined that smartphones and tablets have too many risks and downsides to be an effective tool, then what chance does a child have?
Also - why the pre-determined sequence of tech tools for your kid? I have found a much more valuable approach in general to tool selection is to first identify a problem or project, and then apply the appropriate tools. Learning tech for tech's sake to me indicates that we have become ensnared by our own tools and devices.
LumaFusion/LumaTouch is one counter-example, and I‘m certain there are others. At the surface, you may describe it as a „video editor“, but I totally agree that it‘s really about „Story Telling“. I use it on iPad, and I am mesmerised about how ideas click into place every time - there must be serious, long earned expertise at work at the makers of this app. „Designed for consuming“? LumaFusion is the most fun (for me as the creator and my tiny audience of family & friends) creator‘s tool on any device - be it programming on/for small or big iron, writing on Windows, photo editing… you name it.
Your statement may be true for anything knock-off or underpowered, though. Your sentiment just not generalises to premium.
iMovie has existed on it since the start, for all the professional accolades it earns the iPad. You're still not going to see Steve Jobs pitching it as a replacement for the Mac, though. The iPad's most holistic pitch was ebook consumption, everything else was Angry Birds, YouTube and the faint promise of Pornhub on a bigger screen.
I did my last leg of high school on an school-mandated iPad, and it's not hard to get what everyone here is talking about. Want to do CAD? Gotta get a different machine. Want to record music? iPads don't have the drivers for our DAC. Want to type an essay? Go rent a detachable keyboard from the library. So on and so forth until you never feel motivated to create anything superfluous again. It was an exceptionally poor replacement for a laptop, particularly when I wanted to make something or do creative work.
That's fantastic, if your jam is investing in premium hardware and story-telling in video format. Personally, I can't think of a bigger waste of everyone's time than videoing my own life.
Edit: I will take your point though, that Apple at least attempts to produce premium products with a purpose. However, judging by the number of iPads and iPhones I see being used as passive content consumption interfaces, I'm not sure the outcome is much different.
But yeah, my kid will not have a smartphone/tablet until they are at least 12. It's going to be pen and paper first, then a potato computer (gotta be Linux, they can try installing Wine to play games I guess)
I have a favorite comparison between learning how to use technical devices and learning how to use woodworking tools. You have to start out with the hammer, the chisel, the handsaw for small things first. And then learn to use the lathe, the drill, the bandsaw. Jumping straight to the big tool give you the big risk of losing a few fingers.