My nephew is glued to his iPad; it’s changing everything about his personality

“Every weekend, it got worse ... He then started losing interest in almost all activities that he used to enjoy,” the Australian woman said.

Ever since *Laura’s nephew, Jake*, was born, she has been trying to help take care of him in any way she can.

Laura is more than happy to babysit the 10-year-old, whether it be taking him to and from school or babysitting him on the weekends with her husband, Drew*.

However, roughly one year ago, Jake started acting weird, and Laura couldn’t understand what was causing the issue. 

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Jake can't get off his iPad. Picture: iStock

“Every weekend, things got worse”

As Laura and Drew were walking Jake to school, they quickly realised something was unusual about the way the 10yo spoke. 

“We started to notice that Jake was beginning to develop an American accent,” she said on Reddit. “We are Australian.”

RELATED: Viral video shows the hilarious way American Bluey fans try to speak Aussie slang

At first, she pushed it aside. After all, “small kids have phases, and so I didn't want to make it ‘a thing’”. Despite her best intentions, it did become a “thing”, and Jake’s accent slowly started to get “thicker” and he started to become “more irritable”.

“Me and my husband brought this up with my sister, who said that Jake wasn't very grumpy when with her,” she said.  

Then things started to spiral, and Jake began “losing interest in almost all activities that he used to enjoy”, complaining about the activities he and his aunt Laura would do every weekend. 

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“Every weekend, it got worse,” she said, concerned. “He would complain of being bored, but when we offered an exhaustive list of all the things we could do with him, he said no to every single one.”

When the school year started in late January, the Australian woman was growing increasingly anxious that her nephew was getting out of control. 

“At this point, his American accent was indistinguishable from a general American accent,” Laura said. Shortly after school started, Jake’s “teacher and a few classmates had asked him how long he'd been in the US before moving to Australia”.

And despite it all, Luara just couldn’t put her finger on the issue. What was causing this sudden personality change? 

RELATED: ‘They were going to dub Bluey with American accents to make it more appealing overseas’

When his birthday rolled around, and Jake’s parents hosted a birthday party for his friends and family, the pieces started to fall into place. Sitting in the corner of the room was Jake, playing on his iPad and watching “short-form content that I did not recognise”. 

“His friends wanted to play with him, and he just did not notice they were there,” Laura said. “People were giving him presents, and he acted like he was inconvenienced for having to turn the iPad off.” 

Obviously, this was highly unusual, considering none of Laura’s other “nieces or nephews reacted like this upon me giving them money and delicious treats”.

This prompted Laura to speak to Jake’s mum (her sister) about the way the 10yo was behaving in recent months. “She seemed very offended that I was ‘questioning her parenting choices’, as she put it, and she decided that me and my husband babysitting Jake had to stop,” she said. 

However, the babysitting didn’t stop, and Laura noticed her nephew growing more forlorn and detached from the rest of the world. 

“He was noticeably skinnier, which I suspect was because he was forgetting to eat in favour of iPad time,” the concerned woman said. “And when anyone went over to talk to him, he would almost instinctively push the screen towards his body so nobody could see.”

But, perhaps unsurprisingly, when Laura brought this up again with her sister, all she got in return was a nasty attitude. The Australian woman tried to reason with her sister, explaining that “a year ago, Jake was an energetic child who got along really well with everyone, and now he's reclusive, and it's obvious from just looking at him that he's skipping meals”.

And while her sister continued denying the issue, Jake’s father buckled and admitted that Laura was “right to some extent, and Jake’s friends had stopped trying to hang out with him because he said no 100 per cent of the time”. 

RELATED: American toddler speaks like an Aussie thanks to Bluey obsession

"He sounds addicted at this point"

Initially, Jake’s behaviour was considered somewhat common, explaining that children frequently adopt accents after watching a certain TV show. (How many American kids have an Aussie accent thanks to Bluey?) 

However, there were other signs that triggered concern for the Reddit community. 

“He sounds addicted at this point,” said a parent. “Kids addicted to electronics have the same withdrawal someone would have withdrawing from alcohol.”

“I have noticed similar behaviour in kids who watch excessive iPad, such as irritability, short attention span, [and] changes in personality,” another concerned person wrote. 

“Doing nothing but watching short videos can definitely do that to a child,” a third added.

“They are basically addicted to those extremely short dopamine rushes. Their attention span becomes the duration of those videos, and everything seems dull and boring in real life.”

Others praised Luara for voicing her concern to Jake’s mother. “You've raised valid concerns about Jake’s behavioural changes, and it's essential to address such issues for the well-being of the child,” a person said. 

“Tech addiction is just like any other addiction,” said another. “I’m glad someone is worried for the boy.”

*Names have been changed

Originally published as My nephew is glued to his iPad; it’s changing everything about his personality