Phones may have amplified a pre-existing issue, but they are not the issue. My parents were experts at being in the same room as me while abrogating my existen

Phones may have amplified a pre-existing issue, but they are not the issue. My parents were experts at being in the same room as me while abrogating my existence. My mother lived on the phone (you know, the kind you put to your face and go “oh I know... oh I know.... oh he didn’t!”), and my father had a newspaper for a face. I inevitably one day had enough, and shredded the newspaper at the breakfast table, threw the phone into the garden. Oh, the hiding I got for that - but at least it was attention. They sent me to boarding school shortly thereafter, which was a relief, for the reasons you describe.