Srinagar, Jan 24: Waking up to the side effects of technology, civil society members put their heads together to figure out a solution for digital addiction among the young generation in Kashmir.
An interactive session on the impact of smartphone and internet addiction was organized by Amar Singh Club, Srinagar here on Friday where people from different strata of society discussed the pros and cons of technology.
The event was presided over by Prof S A Romshoo, Vice Chancellor of the Islamic University of Science and Technology. It was presided over by eminent advocate Zaffer A Shah. Other participants included Dr Majid Shafi, Incharge, Mental Health & Addiction Treatment Programme of the Directorate of Health Services, Dr. Tejinder Singh Sethi, Dr. Najeeb Drabu, former Chief Information Commissioner G R Sofi, Mohd Ibrahim Shahdad, Prof Aijaz and others. The event was organized by the Managing Committee of Amar Singh Club, which was represented by the Club Secretary, Nasir H Khan, and Managing Committee members Rauf A Punjabi, Er M S Sethi, and P Fazili.
Nasir Hamid Khan, Secretary of the Club in his opening remarks stated that although a degree of dependence on technology was inevitable the problematic use of it appeared to be having devastating consequences on the younger generation. Citing studies conducted in this regard, he stated that digital addiction in kids and adolescents leads to structural brain changes creating irreparable damage to their young minds depriving them of all creativity, purpose,e and meaning. He stated that parents need to be aware that experts have termed social media as a drug and smartphones a ‘modern-day hypodermic needle’ to which kids and adults go for quick digital hits, seeking attention, validation, and distraction with each swipe, like, and tweet. This leads to users continuously living in their limbic brain, which processes emotions, rather than in their pre-frontal cortex which deals with future planning and problem solving and is critical for personality development.
Nasir stated that there was reason to not only be worried but to be scared because there were indications that the future generations could be a majority of brain-damaged junkies controlled by vested interests and artificial intelligence if we failed to invoke damage limitation interventions. Among other measures, he suggested that our goals should be to cut back to more healthy levels of digital use and encourage kids to take up sports and other mind-engaging activities.
Prof S A Romshoo, in his address, while congratulating the organizers for raising this topic stated that the overuse of digital devices was killing all creativity amongst students and making them underperform. At the same time, he cautioned parents from pushing children towards achieving higher percentages in exams and has created an artificial reward system that appreciates results but not the learning process. He stated that it had turned into a status symbol for parents to say that their child had got 99 percent marks.
He said that failure was an essential part of the learning process but parents today are not ready to accept that. This kills all creativity and curiosity of their minds which is critical for the development of their skills and personality. Parents should encourage children to engage in activities that bring them closer to nature and also allow for a deeper understanding of their culture and history. He urged educational institutions to promote developmental skills by providing engaging vocations like hands-on workshops and drone and robotic labs and promoting interesting subjects like astronomy and space science. He expressed concern at the fact that while winter vacations of two and a half months are declared to take students away from their curriculum, parents start tuition from day one of the vacations. Children need time to develop their thought processes which tends to get interrupted by such activities.
Zaffer Shah stated that while digital technology has many merits, the consequences of its problematic use should be a cause of concern for all. It tends to make us sedentary and avoid physical activities. He stated that these were things of the future and we should be concerned about the misuse of this technology. In this regard, the time spent online, and the screen time was an important aspect of overconsumption. The reliance on technology had in effect made kids stop using their minds.
Citing examples, he stated that today’s children would use technology to solve a simple 2 plus 2 sum, he said that minds develop and grow only when they are used. He said that mobile devices have become peace-buying devices for parents and elders who tend to give them to their children as digital pacifiers. He said that elders need to revisit their relationship with their children whom they hand over mobile devices to buy pleasure for themselves in that they will not be disturbed.
He said that in the formative years of the development of their minds, children may not be able to distinguish between the right and wrong uses of these devices. Parents have an extremely important role to play in balancing the needs of a child for educational purposes and ensuring that this freedom is not misused. The need to regulate the use of digital devices requires more thought to come up with solutions. He said that he had observed the rise in the wearing of spectacles in several children which was not so earlier. Parents need to encourage their children to leave their homes and engage in sports and physical activities. As a society, we also need to think about where the playgrounds are for these children. He said that we have become so commercial-minded that we have turned every park, and every open space into a commercial enterprise.
He said that the State alone can provide such spaces and create conditions for these children to leave their homes and play outside. Facilities need to be provided to them. He said if the civil society can come forward and provide such facilities, it is good. But it is the primary responsibility of the Government to provide such facilities. Children are to be allured to draw them away from these devices. We have to provide conditions and environment that attract children to leave home and play. He also urged parents to give more attention to their children and try to make them their friends as times have changed now and the responsibility of bringing up children would require more serious efforts from the parents. He said that the State must come down heavily on these massive constructions everywhere which deprived children of any space to play.
Dr Majid Shafi, Consultant Psychiatry, Incharge Mental Health & Addiction Treatment Programme representing the Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir gave details about the criteria of addiction and informed the participants about the prevailing three addictions in Kashmir which were tobacco addiction, drug addiction, and digital addiction. He stated that attention and concentration capacities were visibly getting reduced in today’s generations. Amongst various suggestions, he said that changing the mobile screen to a black-and-white mode considerably helps in limiting the lure and effects on mobile devices. He also suggested that it was important that mealtimes should be phone-free time for the family. He also suggested that turning off notifications for social media apps was another way that frequency of use could be reduced.
He also recommended that users should stick to only social media apps instead of hopping from one to the other of the endless apps available today. Having multiple social media accounts only multiplies the time spent onscreen. He also stated that experts suggest that switching to traditional alarm clocks to wake up in the morning instead of using alarms on mobile devices also helped in avoiding the trigger of using mobile devices in the morning. He stated that many authorities were on record saying that giving your kid a tablet or mobile phone was equivalent to giving them a bottle of wine or a gram of heroin. He also stated that sexual crimes by youngsters had also been linked to their exposure to pornographic content available on the internet. He also stated that the problematic use of digital devices by children was also directly prompted by parents who were using mobile devices in the presence of their children. He recommended that in addition to focusing on children, we also need to focus on our usage of digital devices.
Various other participants shared their views on the topic about the dangers of problematic use of digital devices and it was felt that this was a serious public health concern. It was necessary to create awareness about the consequences of this disease and detailed suggestions for the reduction of its use and interventions required at the individual, family, community, and government levels would be the topic of the next session of ‘Common Interest Conversations” of Amar Singh Club, Srinagar after processing various suggestions received in the first session.