On Wednesday, while President Barack Obama was delivering a speech during the inauguration of the Connect Home initiative in Oklahoma, he couldn't help but slip and reveal his minor gripe about teenagers today, Politico has learned.
The Connect Home project affords poorer communities in America to have a broadband internet connection that will help the economy, and the President recognizes that it is a necessity these days. However, he also told the audience, that even with the benefits of getting Internet access, he didn't want Americans to use this all the time. He cited an example of the teenagers who meet him in person.
"They have their phone out. I'm standing right in front of them," Obama said in his speech, quoted by Politico. "I gotta tell them, 'Young man, put down that phone, shake the hand of your president, then after you shake my hand and look me in the eye and tell me your name, then you can maybe go back to taking pictures.'"
The President also said in his speech that it would be good to set technology aside once in a while in favor of "actually having a conversation."
Obama revealed that in their house, he and his wife, Michelle Obama, have a strict rule when it comes to mobile devices during dinner time. "This is something I talk to Malia and Sasha about. We don't let those phones at the dinner table."
Like other parents, the Obamas are also wary of how much screen time kids are getting these days and in an interview on The Stir, the First Lady said that she is actively monitoring this with her daughters.
"We have rules about it. The girls have limited television and screen time -- none during the week unless it's school-related, because now kids are doing these -- they video chat study groups. And when they're doing that, I always go in their room to make sure they're actually talking about school," said Michelle in the interview.
Even though President Obama supports digital campaigns and is widely known to enjoy gadgets like iPad and Blackberry, or even when he embraces the Internet by actively making his own tweets in Twitter, according to Yahoo, he's setting boundaries for his children and showing a good example for busy parents everywhere.
After all, screen addiction and the excessive use of gadgets is becoming a problem among teenagers today, according to the New York Times because they follow what they see from their parents.
