Kathmandu, March 17: “I was 12 years old when I got my first cell phone, and I was the first one in my class to have one,” said Priyana*, who is now an undergraduate student. Her father used to live abroad and her mother was always busy at office, and so they bought her cell phone to stay connected. Her phone quickly replaced her bicycle, and to a certain extent, even her best friend.
She gave her numbers to lots of people and was instantly a popular kid in the school. This she says exposed her to lot of things which a child shouldn’t be.
“I was addicted to the device, I used to get angry when my parents took it away during my exams. It was like my happiness was determined by the number of calls I got on my cell phone,” she added.
Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram weren’t that popular back then and were just in an initial phase. Children these days get used to devices like cell phone, laptop at a much early age and even parents nowadays use cell phones to distract or entertain their children.
Growing in the world full of technology is not easy. The life of children of this generation is so easy that they don’t have to work hard to get anything. The world revolves around their fingertips. This decreases their enthusiasm to learn new things about life. When you sit for dinner with a family, you always find someone scrolling down their phone or watching TV.
No one has time to go out for a walk, run, ride bicycle and hang out with friends without the interruption of technology. As soon as guests enter the host’s house, the first thing they ask for is wifi password, instead of asking them about their well being.
In the world full of technology, teenagers are becoming vulnerable to addiction to the internet and devices like cell phone and laptop. Young minds don’t need help with their homework anymore; they have Google to find solutions to their questions. They dependence on internet decreases their trust on the real world where people don’t hide behind the mask created by social media.
“One of the main reasons that social media is prominent may be because that teenagers nowadays get bored easily. Every time they press a button something new comes up. Virtual world seems more entertaining to them,” said Akanchha Karki, a psychologist.
Anger issues, anxiety, depression and frustration are not an unheard issue among young teenagers.
Their happiness is determined by the number of likes and comments they receive on their status or photo. Social media has also provided them a platform to post offensive status or photos dedicated towards someone they don’t like, increasing the risks of cyber bullying.
Social media has become source to find validation which people don’t find in real life. We say that the young generation don’t care about socializing or making real friends but the question is have we taught them to do it. We ourselves are so tangled debating about the negative and positive aspects of social media that we have forgotten to live our life without checking our phone for a new message or a missed call.
The truth is that we can all just stop. We can stop checking our phones for a missed call and show up at our friends house, we can stop uploading pictures of sunset on Instagram and actually admire it furthermore we can just stop from getting governed by the device we created.
Yes, social media has connected strangers but torn apart acquaintance of real world. Social media is part of evolution but let’s not forget we are too. Let’s utilize the time we use to count likes and share smiles and go on a journey worth remembering throughout life.
Counting likes on Facebook? Then you are living without a sense...
*Name changed
