Granted that we live in a high-tech world, and we spend each day surrounded by gadgets that constantly try to draw our attention, it's a sad state of affairs when our kids have to battle against our smartphones for our attention.

The ugly truth

A study by Boston Medical Center revealed that more and more parents are so absorbed by their smartphones that they are reacting harshly to their children for distracting them.

The idea for the study came from Dr. Jenny Radesky, a fellow in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Radesky was curious as to how the attention-grabbing allure of smartphones impacted the parent-child relationship and interaction.

Radesky and her fellow researchers gathered their data by performing an undercover investigation of parents and children in fast food restaurants. Observations were made of 55 groups of adults who were sitting with more than one child. Notations were made of how frequently those adults used their smartphones, and of their subsequent interactions with the kids.

Shocking results

In most cases, parents were completely wrapped up in the digital world at their fingertips while their children tried unsuccessfully to get their attention. One child tried to lift his mother's face away from her tablet, but with no success.