Children’s addiction to social media and mobile phones is bad, but a parent’s addiction to social media and mobile phones is equally terrible, if not worse—like this Chinese boy’s story of how her mother ignores him for her mobile phone.
His story went viral after it was shared to Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo.
According to an Epoch Times report: “The boy’s experiences came to light first as a school writing assignment, then on Chinese social media, where it went viral and spurred emotional outpours from thousands of commenters about the impacts that smartphones are having on society.”
“Today is International Women’s Day,” the boy’s letter reads, “so I’d like to thank the hard work my mom does every day and do something for her. First I told her a story, but mama didn’t seem to like it and kept looking at her phone.
“My mood worsened. Then I thought she might appreciate it better if I were to congratulate her.
READ: 10 alarming ways social media can hurt your child
“I congratulated my mother, but she still stared at her phone, which made me even sadder. So this doesn’t work either, I thought. I will just have to give her a back massage. So I pounded her back with my best efforts, but she was still looking at her phone without a single smile.
“I was really sad now, so I decided to wash her feet. Only when I washed her feet did she stop looking at her phone.
“I was a little happier and told her I was doing my best. I wanted to get some praise from her when I finished, but with a serious voice she told me, ‘It’s nice of you to wash my feet today, but you should’ve put more effort into it.’
Photo credit: Taizhou Evening News
“I looked at her blankly as she walked out of the room. ‘Hurry up and write your diary!’ she said, before closing the door. This is how I spent my sad International Women’s Day.”
The post earned nine million views in less than a day after it was posted, said a Taizhou Evening News report.
It has since received angry comments from Chinese social media users, calling out the mother’s behavior and the ill effects of social media in every day life.
Taizhou Evening News also interviewed the students that went to boy’s school and most of them had the same sentiments about their parents.
READ: Why kids need to learn how to be smarter than the internet
“I think my mom likes her cellphone more than me and she pays more attention to it,” one first-grader said.
“My mom is the same,” said another student. “I bathed her feet in ginseng water and massaged her acupuncture points, but she just kept looking at her friends’ post on Wechat.”
The nine-year-old boy’s mother talked to Taizhou Evening News and address her son’s viral story.
“When I read my son’s diary, I looked at my husband and we broke out laughing, but I immediately felt ashamed,” she said. “I didn’t realize that my behavior was having such a big influence on my son’s growth.”
She has since promised that she would put her phone down once in a while and spend more time with her son.
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