To the editor: As a high school teacher, I see the effects that the proliferation of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and smartphones have on the minds and bodies of our children, as columnist Robin Abcarian sees as a parent. However, his bleak outlook seems short-sighted to me.
As educators whose students are easily distracted, our question is always: Who pays for this? Where does the child get money for snacks? Who pays the phone bill?
I see my students for an hour each day. When I'm outside the classroom, I contemplate new ways to engage their developing minds. I don't see smartphones as a distraction; They are competition.
As for regulating smartphone use and diets on campus, who should enforce this? Teachers? Administrators? Legislation and science discourage us from suspending students for more egregious crimes, so forgive my skepticism.
We all find teenagers frustrating and worry about how young people will corrupt our civilization. But look around you: adults haven't been doing very well lately. And ultimately, instilling proper diet and behavior in our young people requires a collaborative effort from parents, families, educators, and our culture.
Please do not encourage legislators to make an impossible job more difficult while continuing to absolve themselves of the responsibilities we have shirked.
Dayne Contarsy, Hawthorne
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To the editor: The dystopian reality is that sociologist Jonathan Haidt's four simple correctives for reducing smartphone addiction, cited by Abcarian, are inconsequential and irrelevant, because that horse left the barn years ago.
Your correctives are meaningless because there are first-time smartphone users between the ages of 30 and 70 who are equally obsessed with their electronic devices. They can't leave home without them. Many adults who were once able to read a thought-provoking novel now have difficulty concentrating on a single page.
I see addictive behaviors every day: toddlers in their strollers staring at an electronic device oblivious to the life around them and grandmothers intermittently texting while driving. The child in the stroller will soon be the teenager or young adult who walks past you without making eye contact: that is the future of our country.
Giuseppe Mirelli, Los Angeles
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To the editor: When the printing press ran out of everything we had, if a house caught fire, the occupants tried to save their books. After the cameras appeared, they were trying to recover family photos.
Abraham Lincoln's brain was wired differently than those who grew up with electricity. Children who grew up before television have different brain connections than those who grew up with a television at home.
Every new technology presents new opportunities and new challenges. Smartphones are a challenge because anyone can carry them anywhere and anytime. That is new.
Roy A. Fassel, Los Angeles
