CAIRO — Parents spending more time on their smartphones and tablets than with their children has become a real issue these days. Many young people believe that their parents' smartphone use has gone out of control, as sometimes they face difficult situations, and social networks have isolated their parents from the actual world. Twenty-three-year-old Iman Taha asked her father to get a Facebook and WhatsApp account, but now she regrets asking him because he's on his phone all day long. "My father was not familiar with smart phones and I convinced him to join the world. Now I wish I hadn't. All the time now he is using his mobile. He uses it even while he's eating," said Iman. "I was spending more time with him before he started using the smartphone. Now most of his time is at work and the rest is with his smartphone." Farida, a 25-year-old Egyptian female, said she believes that some parents use of their smartphones has become out of control. "My mother and father became isolated from the real world since they started spending time in the virtual world. We, as their children, started to ask them to stop using smartphones," she said. "My mother has 10 groups on WhatsApp with her common friends and family. When I set next to her I hear nothing but the WhatsApp ring," she said. "It makes it hard for us to talk to them. Sometimes I keep talking to my mother and she doesn't listen and then she comes back telling me to repeat what I said." Sherine Mohammed, a 27-year-old, said that her parents are now doing the very things they once told her to stop doing. "My mother sleeps with the iPad in her hand. She was blaming us for that, and now she is doing the same thing. She talks about nothing now but Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp," she said. "My father keeps using the smartphone even when we are at the hospital, doing his monthly check up. He uses it everywhere and all the time, even when we are with our family or sitting with people, he leaves the actual conversation and turns to his phone, which is very embarrassing for us," she said.
