- When the pandemic devasted the global community through unmitigated loss of lives and livelihood for millions of people, the technological know-how available in the form of information technology-based solutions did provide an alternative to the cornered governments. Of course, technology has not only revolutionized the world through its immense popularity and ease of making everything available over a click of a mouse or a button but also offers digital solutions to so many day-to-day occurrences in our lives. Needless to mention, the digitalization efforts undertaken by the government have immensely contributed to reaching out to the last man standing through various socio-economic welfare measures. No complaints there.
PC: admin
- As you are aware, the penetration of the internet and smartphones in the context of the Indian nation needs no further elaboration. More than 800 million are using the same, showing how ubiquitous digital mediums have become over the years. Also, the pandemic ensured people cooped up in their homes are not deprived of entertainment through OTT platforms apart from the several available social media handles. However, one of the major fallouts of the revolutionary emergence of the digital world is the way children lost touch with physical activities when everything was available over electronic gadgets, including online pedagogy. Thankfully, things have returned to normalcy now, but the usage of smartphones hasn’t diminished one bit.
- While we were growing up, our parents never failed to keep us interested by narrating tales, fables, epics, and other moral strictures by extensively quoting from their passed-on experiences. Nowadays, parents have found an easy way of handing out a smartphone that provides everything under the sun in a digital format. Thus, a toddler engrossed in a smartphone in a noisy public place, here stillness notable against the hubbub, is a common sight today. Indeed, at whatever age a child is introduced to such devices, an intense relationship seems to develop almost by itself. The adults who worry about what copious screen time is doing for children’s mental and physical health do so for good reasons. But the variable is just too fraught for any universal regulation.
PC: Rosipaw
- Interestingly, a political party in New Zealand has proposed banning the use of mobile phones in schools ostensibly to eliminate unnecessary disturbances and distractions. In India, many schools already have such policies in place. In China government has pushed various apps to limit children to 40 minutes a day plus lock them out from 10 pm to 6 am. It will take time and research to establish that such policies deliver the emotional and cognitive advantages they promise. Meanwhile, there are two broad criticisms here and now. Why blame smartphones for the failure of pedagogy to evolve with technology? Why not address the reasons why children spend so much time on their phones? Parents are equally guilty and culprits here. We spend less time to ensure intense parenting indeed happens as our parents did to us. Mind you, children won’t surrender their screen time before we adults do. Did someone say time for a reality check? Indeed.
