An essay from a second grader in Louisiana is going viral because it brings to light the impact of excessive adult cellphone use on children.
Elementary school teacher Jen Adams Beason shared an essay that one of her pupils turned in. According to reports, she asked the kids in her class to write about something they wished was never invented and one stood out because it struck a chord with most adults.
"I don't like the phone because my [parents] are on their phone every day," the second grader wrote in the essay. "I hate my mom's phone and I wish she never had one."
The child also drew a mobile phone at the end of the essay. Crossed over it was an "X" with a frown face that had a thought bubble saying, "I hate it."
Unsurprisingly, the post generated a lot of response on Facebook. It was shared nearly 300,000 times before the teacher turned the settings to private.
According to Beason, four of the 21 kids in her class actually wrote about their parents' cellphone use. She reminded parents to switch off, get offline and "listen to your kids."
A 2017 study published in the journal Child Development said that children are more likely to misbehave when they have parents who are constantly on their digital devices.
About 170 families were polled in the survey to ask about the parents' digital habits and the children's behavior. Nearly half of the parents said that they experienced distraction from technology at least three times a day, even when they were supposedly engaged with their children's activities. These parents also reported that their kids sulked, threw tantrums and whined more often.
The study authors said that children notice when parents take a few minutes to look at the phone or tablet while playing with them or having a meal together. These little distractions, while seemingly innocent, appear to impact the kids in a significant way.
