“I’m addicted for sure. Can’t imagine how strong the addiction is for them.”

Their post continues: "I’m especially interested in the elementary/middle school teachers’ [opinions] on what behaviors you notice in kids these days that make it glaringly obvious they have constant screen access. Do you feel [the constant screen access] exacerbates executive dysfunction?"

"Sometimes, they would come [into] the room, and before class started, be on games already. They hardly touched the board games and other stuff I had. 

"So, we decided next year free time will be without Chromebooks. I had one [student who] couldn't even put it under his desk; when I asked him, he actually hugged it. It's really an addiction."

"If I let kids play games on computers, they're all in their own zones. If I put out Legos and marble run and chess, or even just paper and [arts and] crafts, they are all sharing and talking and working together, making up stories, getting into little dramatic fights, going into time out. 

"All that shit is taken for granted, for most of human existence.  But [in] the last 20 to 30 years... kids [don't always] get to do this kind of playtime unless it is explicitly scheduled.

"It's depressing; our future's frontal lobe is getting bent over by TikTok."

"They whined about being bored and wanted to go inside, even begging me to leave my station and take them inside. 'Ms. Ride, this is boring. Can you take us inside to your room?'

"Finally they found a platform on the field and sat there on their phones for most of the three hours.

"Not being able to engage in or enjoy non-screen activities screams 'I have unlimited screen time.'"

"Teenagers screaming, literal tears, tantrums and complete regression to toddler behavior."

"They don't know how to hold a conversation, sit and listen, or even try to mentally process something before opening their mouth."

"These students will try to be funny by saying the most shocking and pornographic things I’ve ever heard and not even fully realize how weird and hurtful they’re being. Also, the pornographic moaning in the middle of class is a big deal."

"He started noticing me scrolling when he was around 6 months [old] and got really interested in it around 10 months, so now I try to keep it away completely except at naptime, but then naptime hits and I’m like a junkie who’s been waiting hours for a fix (currently four minutes into nap as I type this).

"I feel so lucky that smartphones weren’t even a thing until I was a full-blown adult, because if I’m this bad now I can’t even imagine how I would function if someone had handed me a tablet the day I turned 2 and never looked back.

"I don’t even know how we’re supposed to try to raise kids to function with limited screen time when half the kindergartens in our area are passing out tablets or Chromebooks before the kids can read or add or write their own name with a pencil on paper."