By: Javaid Ahmad Dar
Smartphone addiction has become an issue of serious concern for all age groups, but the addiction of children towards these phones is seen as a dangerous trend by researchers. On the other hand younger population suffer from NOMOPHOBIA (No Mobile Phone PhoBIA) meaning people have been fear of detaching from mobile phones.
Smartphone addiction not less harmful than alcoholism or drug abuse. During the on ongoing COVID-19 pandemic this addition has increased manifold. The reason of smartphone addiction is that these electronic gadgets are easy to carry and young boys and girls can use them anywhere and whenever they want. More than this the multifunctional features of smartphones makes it easier to do many things at a time. During the first three to four months of COVID-19 pandemic people became more addicted to smartphones. Those children who were hardly addicted to android cellphones also got addicted to it during COVID-19 lockdown.
Addiction during COVID-19
The addiction to Smartphones and internet has increased alarmingly among children and teenagers during on-going COVID-19 pandemic. This addiction is a kind of secret pandemic which is a very dangerous trend. The COVID 19 pandemic is essentially an invisible enemy. Being forced to stay at home is also very difficult for children with developmental disorders like attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder or those on the autism spectrum as a lot of therapies to treat them suggest intense counseling and therapy based on physical activity. During the COVID 19 lockdown all the activities related to teaching or learning process, the smartphones have emerged as the most preferred medium for virtual learning and teaching.
COVID-19 and our Education System
Because of COVID-19 1.2 billion kids are out of schools globally. We have to shift from traditional learning to e-learning or digital platforms compulsorily, to develop a new model of teaching learning called as New Hybrid Model of Education from class Nursery to College level, integrate education with information technology and it proved beneficial in many aspects like high reach, low cost, connecting the whole country, flexibility, open choice, limiting the need to travel, social distancing, improving digital skills and so on. On the other hand e-learning has more drawbacks from students, parents and teachers point of view. The first aspect to point out is that the most vulnerable section of this technology is the kids of 3 to 8 years. Equally relevant are the issues of ban of smart phones and laptops by Karnataka Government from Kinder garden (KG) to 7th class, Madhya Pradesh from KG to 5th class and Maharashtra from Kg to 2nd class.
Mobile phones and laptops emits blue light, which is a high energy light and influences a chemical reaction on Retinal Macula of the human eye which leads to apoptosis ( cell death), blue light also decreases the secretion of sleep hormone namely Melatonin which interferes in sleep cycle. Headache, Tech neck, memory loss etc are other harmful effects particularly in Kids.
Schools are like social laboratories making kids socially and morally responsible towards a better society by peer group interactions and by student Teacher relations, textbooks account only 20% in this scenario which is known as literacy.
Personal observation
Let u start by considering facts, every time when I meet parents during the parent teacher meetings, the first response I receive from parents is that their children are constantly busy on smartphones. After waking up early in the morning children ask for a smartphone, if the parents deny the access, they start watching television or spend time with a computer which again is not good. Games, games and games is the only motivation behind use of cellphones by younger children. Our children are so much addicted with the smartphone games that many kids lot their life as well while playing PUBG game. The problem with these games is that there are few such games which make kids violent and increases tendencies of violence among children and teenagers.
I met with some parents, who feel proud that their little kid is operating a smartphone which the parents are unable to operate. Parents even bash their kids for such acts and this makes children more confident to play different games on smartphones and with the passage of time this proves fatal. Such activities don’t actually increases intelligence coefficient (IQ) as this is disastrous in the long run as playing games or watching movies constantly effects the brains grey matter and inculcates undesirable habits in our children to the extent that they become over reactive towards little disturbance while playing games.
Survey reports
With the changes of technology new technologies are coming up on daily basis new kind of phobias are also reported. Not only kids adult populations are also more susceptible too. 77% of 18 to 24 years old survey takers are related to NOMOPHOBIA.NOMOPHBIA has been proposed by Psychiatrists as a specific phobia. Results of a 2016 common sense media report found that 50% of teens “feel addicted” to mobile devices, while59% of parents believe that kids are addicted to their devices. 95%of teens have access to smart phones. A study conducted by Jaipur-based JK Lone Children’s hospital has found that the lockdown restrictions, from March 25th 2020 to contain the spread of COVID 19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the physical, mental and emotional health of the impressionable minds , resulting in an addiction to electronic devices, obesity, and an irritable behavioral pattern.
Conclusion
World is changing at a very great pace especially with new inventions and technological boom in Information Technology (IT) sector. In such a scenario to maintain the equilibrium between these changes and human brain is definitely a challenging task, hence one must learn how to exercise control and to know what is important and what is not important at a specified time. Knowledge management, time management and setting the priorities of life should guide our behaviour in using the technological gadgets and services, use of any product should be driven by necessity not by luxury. Parents need to keep a close watch on what the kids as technology has its advantages and disadvantages. Let school teachers and parents take kids for outings like trekking and hiking in summers. Boys and girls be encouraged to play outdoor games like football , cricket, kho kho , volleyball etc. Let the traditional Kashmiri games like Sazloung , wrestling (Dabb), Garam be reintroduced in our society. Let us make sure our kids get rid of excessive use of smartphones as its addiction is more dangerous than drug addiction. Online classes are soul less and are ruining your Kids better to engage them in house hold works.
The author is Lecturer Botany at Government Higher Secondary School Pakhar Pora, Budgam. He can be reached at lec.javaid786@gmail.com
