Like most articles on smartphone usage, your editorial (10 April) discusses phone addiction among young people. This strikes me as hypocritical because, in my experience, adults look at their phones just as much as, or perhaps even more than, children. Most adults I know have their phone in their line of sight at all times. My 60-year-old mother, who used to scold me in my teens for always being on my laptop, recently confessed to being addicted to YouTube. I remember one article about parents being told to stop looking at their phones and pay attention to their children instead. The obvious way to reduce children’s use of phones might be to stop setting them a terrible example. I have been considering getting a “dumbphone” to replace my five-year-old Android phone, but soon figured that I would need a smartphone for banking, maps, public transport information etc. On my commute, I see schoolchildren with their phones in their hands, but I assume, like me, they want to know whether they are going to miss their connection due to the bus being late. Nisha Gandhi Mudersbach, Germany