I Feel Bad For Today¡¯s Kids Because They're Always On The Phone & Missing Out On Life

Back when I was growing up, I clearly remember that my cousin sister and I had a particular time when we would go out to play with other children in the colony. We played some of the classics like hide and seek or vish amrit. At times, though, we added a new twist to these games, giving them our own names.

We¡¯d spend at least three hours outside running around and having fun. When we got tired, we¡¯d spend time talking to each other and laughing at the silliest things.

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Fast forward fifteen years, my cousin sister got married and had a beautiful baby girl. As cute as she is, one thing I notice about her is that she loves shining screens. In fact, she prefers watching her favourite cartoon on her mother¡¯s tab when we go out to eat with the whole family instead of actually interacting with us. She already has her selfie face perfected and knows more about using the phone than I do.

Maybe that¡¯s why she finds a friend in our teenage cousin brother who is busy uploading stories on Instagram to show his followers how happening his life is; texting his friends, instead of actually going out with them and looking up answers to all his questions over the internet. And he does all this while he¡¯s sitting with us! Both these children in our house are almost stuck to their screens.

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I feel sad for them because they¡¯ll never know about summers spent climbing trees; they¡¯ll have almost no stories about the chalks they stole from their classroom to draw lines while playing stahpoo, and no memories of the silly jokes cracked with friends after a very competitive game of pithhoo. However, my concern is actually greater than the fact that they are growing up different than I did.

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Even science is concerned about how much the children of today are using their phones.

According to research by Common Sense Media, an average teen spends around nine hours on the smartphone. How is it a bad thing? Research published in NeuroRegulation, shows heavy smartphone usage causes anxiety and depression. And it makes sense, really. These teens are constantly refreshing their feeds, looking at carefully manicured feeds of other people and getting ¡®FOMO¡¯ about what they¡¯re losing out on without really realising that they¡¯re losing out on the experience in the real world only because they¡¯re the ones not making an effort to go out.

The generation is essentially isolating itself and the irony is that it is doing so while chasing the idea of social interaction, which is virtual in nature. It wants to connect because that is the human tendency but it doesn¡¯t realise that human interactions can¡¯t be forged sitting behind a screen. This generation needs to realise that strong human interactions that lead to life-long friendships and relationships happens when people sit across each other and have an actual conversation that can¡¯t be fit into a bubble box.

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I genuinely feel sad for the kids who don¡¯t even understand the importance of play time because they¡¯re always so busy with phones. It also worries me immensely. It is high time that the older generation looks into this and finds a way to reduce smartphone usage for kids so that they can go back to enjoying real life instead of staying sad in the virtual one.