Devices Make Bad Parents

Among children whose parents consistently use mobile devices, “feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition are widespread,” says Sherry Turkle, director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and Self. “Much of the concern about cellphones and instant messaging and Twitter has been focused on how children who incessantly use the technology are affected by it. But parents’ use of such technology — and its effect on their offspring — is now becoming an equal source of concern to some child-development researchers,” writes Julie Scelfo of the New York Times.