Growing Up As The iPad Kid
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iPads. I loved having an iPad. Maybe a bit too much. Okay, pause. All right. Not that much. Somebody born in like early to mid Gen Z. I didn't see a world without technology. Apple just shoved all their devices in my face the moment I was able to use one. I started using this little mini ass iPod. That shit looked like a brick. It was like an MP3 player. And of course, since like the early 2010s had some absolute bangers, you already know I was listening to Minecraft for

Yes, I'm not even kidding. And of course, I would also listen to the Pokemon theme song. I don't know why I would just listen to these over and over again. But you know what? I can't lie. It's kind of a banger. I can't even hate. And of course, I would listen to people such as Usher, Pitbull, Katy Perry, you know, all the 2010s classics. And this was my first time having an Apple device. Before that, I had a DS and my parents would not let me take my DS to school.

because they didn't want it to be a distraction for my learning but of course i was easily able to sneak this little mini ipod to school and i would just listen to music sometimes you know when kids are throwing paper airplanes in the classroom that's just a complete ruckus i was just sitting there with my earbuds in ipod in hand listening to some bangers and this is when i fell in love with music because obviously i cannot go without music if music did at sierra i discovered top workout gear at incredible prices which might lead to another discovery

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I don't know what the hell I would do. I don't know. And shortly after, we became an Apple family. All right, we had every Apple device you could think of. Okay, not every Apple device, but you get the point. And in 2012, my dad bought his very first iPad. And it was for the entire family to use. And that was a grave mistake because I was on the iPad all the time.

My dad didn't even get a chance to use it. It was just me and my brother just spawn camping the iPad all day. Because I discovered the greatness of things such as the App Store. And of course, you got classics such as like Angry Birds, PVZ. I've talked about them plenty of times.

And I would browse the App Store for so long because I always wanted new games to play. And I would find the most random games ever. Like, I found this game called Tiny Wings. It was kind of tough. I can't even lie. Now, don't get me wrong. I loved all the games and YouTube videos that we grew up with. But I didn't even give myself a chance to breathe. Like, I was always on that damn iPad.

I was trying to rack up that sweet, juicy stimulation. Okay, that was a bit too detailed. That sounded kind of wrong. But yeah, these forms of entertainment are amazing, and I have no idea what the hell I would do without them. But it's important to limit your screen time and how long you spend on your devices, because there is so much more to life to experience. And wherever I would go, I would bring this iPad with me everywhere.

And of course, they obviously didn't let me bring it to school because I was obsessed with the damn thing. My grades would have been terrible. But it didn't matter because that's all I thought about in school. I was thinking about the next Lego Ninjago episode. Annoying Orange. How my Clash of Clans base is doing. Like, f-

thinking about Pendas and Long Division when you can think about your Clash of Clans base. But I would bring the family iPad everywhere I could. Friend's house, I was bringing it. Family function, I was bringing it. And instead of actually, you know, talking to my family, I didn't say sh** to anybody.

I would just sit on my iPad, eyes just glued to the screen. Like, I was really locked in. But to be fair, I had no clue what the hell adults talked about at that time. I just thought they talked about gas prices, bills, taxes, the weather. And I didn't really understand any of that shit. So I wasn't exactly about to ask my Uncle Rick what the weather forecast was looking like this week. And they probably had no idea what to say to me either, besides how was school going. Like, I wouldn't know either, so I don't blame them. Hey, so bud, what's that little game you got there?

Erm, excuse me. This is no little game. This is Clash of Clans. This is a very serious matter, and my clan needs me right now. Can't talk, Uncle Rick. I gotta three-star this base in the clan war or I'm getting kicked. Okay, I would not sound like

Or maybe a little bit. But yeah, I was not getting off the game anytime soon. I was laser focused on that shit. And as much as my parents would tell me to get off the iPad, I never would. I would just play it until the battery completely died. And of course, I also had to share the iPad. And at the time, I was not having it that I had to share the iPad with my twin brother, the duck.

And obviously we would fight over it because to me at the time, an iPad was the greatest thing on earth. Besides my DS. We would duke it out. We would have all out brawls for this iPad. We would come up with every argument in the book as to why we were able to use the iPad for longer than the allotted time we had. My parents had to put a little system in place where my brother got it for an hour and then I got it for an hour.

and we would just constantly trade off the iPad. And every single time I would just look at the timer, I would stare it down until that hour was up. And while that timer was going... Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Evglyss.

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I would do shit like roll around in the grass. Like, I don't know what kind of activities I used to be on, but that's what I was doing. Or I would just play with the toys I had and the moment it went off, I would run to the iPad as fast as I can. And I would piss the fuck out of my brother and I'd be like, it's my turn, it's my turn. Like, chill the hell out, bro. You're gonna get this iPad eventually. And we would fight over a lot of things growing up.

Like the Wii, Wii U, etc. But eventually we just had to learn that, yeah, we gotta share our shit. It is what it is. But a couple years later, we no longer had to share. And I bought my very own iPad Mini with every single cent I had for my birthday money.

Everybody in my family knew I wanted an iPad for myself, so I had to get one. So all my cousins, aunts, uncles just gave me money for my birthday so I could get the iPad. My mom told everybody I was saving up for an iPad, so they just had to do it. So me and my brother got our very own iPad minis after that.

And with the $250 that it costed in hand, I felt like the richest man on planet Earth. So yeah, I got the iPad, and at this point, I became addicted to the internet. I didn't really watch TV at all. I never really watched TV shows. So when people at school would talk about the newest TV show and shit like that, I would have no clue what the hell they were talking about. I would listen to a lot of rap music, and that was really the only thing I was, like, tapped.

in with, but everything else, nothing. Like, I didn't even know what the hell they were talking about. When people were talking about the new episode of whatever the fuck, I was over there watching goddamn MLG videos. And the only- I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto-friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does, without me lifting a finger. So I can get in more squats anywhere I can. One, two, three. Um, will that be cash or credit? Credit!

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I was very locked in on these niche internet things or whatever you call them. Like I used to be obsessed with this website called Scratch where you could code your own game or animation, whatever the hell. Yeah, that's all I really wanted to do was go home, surf the internet and play games. And yeah, it was pretty sad because I wasn't really excited to do anything else. That's what I was most excited for throughout the day.

And a lot of you might be wondering, well, how did being glued to the iPad affect you? Well, honestly, it affected a lot of things. Like my grades, for example. I was very behind in school. Like reading, math, like I was not on level for it. And you would not believe that was before I even had the iPad.

So, uh, you could imagine after I got it. But thankfully, since my grading system was absolute garbage, like, I don't know what the hell a 1, 2, 3, and 4 is, but even if you had the most shit grades in the world, you were still going on to the next grade. Like, I never really saw anybody that stayed back a grade or anything.

Like teachers were so easy on us for no reason. Like, I don't know how it went from teachers telling you to shut the hell up and hitting you with a ruler in the 1950s to now little Timmy user inside voice. There are other students trying to learn if it wasn't for teachers being so easy on us. Okay. I think I definitely would have failed, but not only did it affect that, it also affected my social skills. I can't even hold a damn conversation if my life depended on it.

And it's sometimes like, yeah, I just don't know what to say to people. You know, you don't really have to say shit 24-7, obviously, but when you're in a conversation, you should know what to do. Like, you shouldn't have to sit there like, um, uh, like I do. Like, it's just not good. And sometimes I say shit and it just doesn't even make sense. And I'm like, wow, I just sounded really- You don't wake up dreaming of McDonald's fries. You wake up dreaming of McDonald's hash browns.

McDonald's breakfast comes first. Stupid. And it is what it is. It happens to the best of us. You know, I just have to keep improving that skill. And eventually I'll sound less stupid, but that's what I get for walking around in the store on my iPad and like,

walking in the shelves. Like I wasn't even looking at my surroundings. I was too locked in on like jet pack joyride trying to beat my high score. And I was already behind on like spelling, speech and things like that before I even got the damn iPad. So having a device as an out from conversation just didn't help. And I should have been aware of how important having that skill was, but I just wasn't. And of course this one goes without saying another thing that was affected severely was my attention span.

Like, I can't even read a damn book nowadays. I can't even record this video without so many pauses and forgetting what the hell I was gonna say. I have the same attention span as fucking Dory from Finding Nemo, bro. Or, you know what? It's probably worse than that, maybe. Because now they're saying human attention span is worse than a goldfish. I mean, that might be true in my case. I don't know.

because every time I like open my phone go on social media I just forget what the hell I was even doing in the first place like if I do something that's less stimulating than like playing a game or whatever I can't even pay attention to it that's why I can't read a damn book or sometimes I lose my train of thought very easily like I have so many times recording this and of course the number one problem with constantly having an iPad in front of my face is the fact that I can never put my phone down like it's

Really bad every time i'm like sitting down not really doing anything. I feel like I always have to be doing something So I just open my phone out of habit. I shouldn't be doing that bro I should be able to just chill out and look at nature for a second And of course not all this is because I had an ipad All right, this all happened because I just couldn't get off the internet

Like I had to desperately log off. Like even still now to this day. You know, obviously the internet's great, but it's important to limit yourself. Like sometimes I'm racking up like crazy numbers for screen time. Like numbers I shouldn't even be seeing. Like sometimes on a regular day, my average screen time is 8 hours.

hours and that was just on my phone which is crazy but yeah excessive screen time is a huge problem in gen z and now that we're getting older obviously it's affecting us a lot so if you're interested watch this video about gen z being adults now on the end screen just click on it