Young Children Wish Their Parents’ Smartphones Were Never Invented

Research papers and surveys have been touting how harmful gadgets have become to both children and adults for some time, with smartphone addiction being correlated to the rise in teen suicide rates. However, the trend has never been more starkly represented than the school project of second-grade students in Louisiana where they reveal how much the smartphones of their parents were never invented.

The project has since gone viral ever since it was posted on the web by the teacher, Jen Beason, which is likely due to the fact that it hit a chord with so many people. Four of the her students expressed frustration at the fact that their parents apparently spend quite a bit of time on their devices instead of paying attention to them, USA Today reports.

“I don't like the phone because my [parents] are on their phone every day ... I hate my mom's phone and I wish she never had one," one of the students wrote.

As of writing, the post has been shared 261,000 times and it just keeps growing. Many of those who left comments on the post are parents who acknowledged their bad habits of spending too much time staring at the tiny screens and expressed guilt that they didn’t spend enough time interacting with their children.

In fact, some of the comments were from teachers who discussed Facebook with their students and how their parents were using social media. It turns out that the vast majority of the students felt that their parents spend more time on the social network than actually speaking to their own children. This is a disturbing trend.

As SFGate notes, even the smallest amount of interference with interactions with children due to smartphones and other gadgets can lead to poor development and bad behavior. Basically, using smartphones too much is just bad parenting.