Many of us look at our smartphones hundreds of times a day. We depend on them to finish a lot of tasks and to connect with our friends and family. But have we become addicted (上瘾的) to our phones?

Certainly, the inventor of the first mobile phone, American engineer Martin Cooper, thinks we might be. In a BBC interview, he suggested people should stop scrolling (滚动) and “get a real life”. But of course, once we start watching videos in our smartphones, we just can’t kick the habit. Many of us compulsively (强迫性地) check our phones if we’re waiting for a text or getting really into social media. And then we look up and realize that an hour has passed. There’s even a word — a phubber — to describe a person who ignores the real people around them because they are concentrating on their phones.

But does it matter if we make full use of this technology? Possibly, because like a drug, the problem appears when it is taken away. A study from King’s College London found young people couldn’t control the amount of time they spend on their phones. Such addictive behaviour means that people become unhappy or upset if they are not allowed to use their smartphones, which can cause anxiety and mental health issues.

Interestingly, another study by the scientists of the London School of Economics and Political Science suggests we don’t just look at our phones because of a text or an e-mail. The people they studied felt they can’t help using their phones, just as a smoker would light a cigarette. Professor Saadi Lahlou, one of the writers of the study, told the BBC: “We must learn tricks to avoid the temptation when we want to concentrate or have good social relations.”

With the development of economics (经济), the problem of left-behind children has become a serious social problem. More and more people have realized we should do something to help them.

One of the biggest problems is that the children are all hungry for the love from their parents. Many of them can just get a call or a letter from their parents half a year, a year or even several years, which makes some children nearly forget their parents. When they meet their own troubles, they have no one to talk with. Nobody gives them enough care.

Because of being too far away from their parents, the left-behind children’s study is the second biggest problem. From a survey about their study, only two percent of the children get good results, while ten percent of them are common and eighty-eight percent of them are poor.

What a pity! There are also many other problems of the left-behind children, such as having no ability to protect themselves, unhealthy lifestyles, spending too much pocket money and being crazy about Internet and so on.

In a word, to solve all the problems of the left-behind children needs the government, families and schools to try their best together.