kids' addiction of mobile devices - 1

For parents with growing kids, mobile devices are becoming a nuisance. I shall share my experiences of handling this pendamic (way bigger than COVID-19), concerns and way forward. It was a mistake buying kids mobile phones. Furthermore, letting them use cells unsupervised. Idea was self tutoring. Keeping pace with changing times. Before they pined to put their hands on peers' handsets, take the game to them. Equip them with marvel of human invention. Turn their palms into gateways to the oceans of info. But curiosity killed the cat. Presumed boon became a bane. Self tutoring quashed by Pubg. Marvel of human inventions turned its generation next into zombies. Aloof, engaged, embroiled & absent despite physical presence. Information diluted wisdom and it turned out to be the gateway to confusion.

In hindsight, we too were VCR generation. Fascination of watching Indian Nautankis in drawing rooms was way higher than its deep rooted ills. Hats off to Maulvi sahab who called it a tool of devil but never told us how a machine could decide what should it play. It was always us who consciously watched Indian & other nonsense. Which had short & longterm damaging effects. Yet, there were checks, supervision & deterrence. Whereas, handing over kids cell phones means hurling them into the sea of obscenity. Letting their purity of soul be contaminated. Making us accountable for this gross negligence. Rationing was the way out to control further damage. Hence, limited number of hours of daily mobile use followed by couple of hours on werkends only. It had to be gradual because during the process the urge to lay hands on a device was no less than that of highly addictive drugs. 

Protracted school closure & Zoom classes under COVID-19 circumstances gave kids an excuse to keep these devices for longer hours. And in no time, all the effort went down the drain because it doesn't take much to revive old addiction in same age bracket. 

So having explained the problem and method to contain this madness, we shall meet soon in Part-2 with some practical solutions.