REALLY CONCERNING FOR CHILDREN IN INDIA

Recently I have noticed a trend that is not only concerning but also affecting the physiological behavior of children and also their health. The sad part is even the schools are not understanding it and rather becoming more greedy without thinking about long term implications.

Earlier when small kids used to cry then the parents used to entertain them by giving them toys or clapping or any other such activity. Today you go to Haldiram and notice that as soon as kids cry, the parent hand them a mobile with youtube video and he stops crying. It becomes a habbit of both parents and kid that whenever he cries hand him over your smartphone and he/she stops crying. When he grows little then watching too much mobile is normal for him, I am talking about a 10 year kid, his mind is wired that there is nothing wrong in using smartphone for unnecessary stuff.

Another thing which is even more serious is that I noticed that schools send assignments, homework, sometimes even practice material on whatsapp of their mother, I wonder why? Just to save few bucks on the name of saving environment amd promoting sustainability. The result a student of 7th or even 6th standard sitting in front of Laptop and parents cannot stop him as he is technically studying. Even as an adult it is difficult to continuously studying without any distraction, how can a student manage it?

I strongly believe that instead of saving this little money, if school will ask a small amount to give everything in paper form, every parent will agree. A parent giving about 1 lack fees or even 50K depending on standard and area can afford 1000 ruppes more to decrease screen time of his child.

I literally have no words for all the teachers, people holding administrative posts in schools and also educated parents that don't think about consequences on children.

I would love to hear views if someone has noticed these things.

My post ends here. I came also a interesting article that I am pasting below. If you have time please read it.

[There is] a curious new reality: Human contact is becoming a luxury good. As more screens appear in the lives of the poor, screens are disappearing from the lives of the rich. The richer you are, the more you spend to be off-screen. . . .

The joy — at least at first — of the internet revolution was its democratic nature. Facebook is the same Facebook whether you are rich or poor. Gmail is the same Gmail. And it’s all free. There is something mass market and unappealing about that. And as studies show that time on these advertisement-support platforms is unhealthy, it all starts to seem déclassé, like drinking soda or smoking cigarettes, which wealthy people do less than poor people. The wealthy can afford to opt out of having their data and their attention sold as a product. The poor and middle class don’t have the same kind of resources to make that happen.

Screen exposure starts young. And children who spent more than two hours a day looking at a screen got lower scores on thinking and language tests, according to early results of a landmark study on brain development of more than 11,000 children that the National Institutes of Health is supporting. Most disturbingly, the study is finding that the brains of children who spend a lot of time on screens are different. For some kids, there is premature thinning of their cerebral cortex. In adults, one study found an association between screen time and depression. . . .

Tech companies worked hard to get public schools to buy into programs that required schools to have one laptop per student, arguing that it would better prepare children for their screen- based future. But this idea isn’t how the people who actually build the screen-based future raise their own children. In Silicon Valley, time on screens is increasingly seen as unhealthy. Here, the popular elementary school is the local Waldorf School, which promises a back-to- nature, nearly screen-free education. So as wealthy kids are growing up with less screen time, poor kids are growing up with more. How comfortable someone is with human engagement could become a new class marker.

Human contact is, of course, not exactly like organic food But with screen time, there has been a concerted effort on the part of Silicon Valley behemoths to confuse the public. The poor and the middle class are told that screens are good and important for them and their children. There are fleets of psychologists and neuroscientists on staff at big tech companies working to hook eyes and minds to the screen as fast as possible and for as long as possible. And so human contact is rare. . . .