Lockdown Diary Of A Teenager: Give phubbing a break and reach out for a book
Your mind is more imaginative than you think it is.
The novel coronavirus has brought about sweeping changes in many activities and dimensions of our lives. From behaviour to routines, it has conquered every facet of everyday life. One thing, however, remains unavoidable: screen time.
With conditions forcing us to be indoors for days on end, most teens and many adults are forced to rely on gadgets to keep themselves occupied. After a while, even spending time with family entails each member phubbing on their phones and exchanging a word or two occasionally.
Research shows that the average teenager spends 7 hours and 22 minutes looking at the screen daily. With the lockdown strictly enforced, this number has gone up substantially. Teenagers and adults now have a greater ‘need’ of gadgets in order to keep in touch with their family and friends. Moreover, this is the perfect time for rebellious children to strike, as mothers cannot even reprimand them and suggest that they go play outdoors. No amount of board games and family conversations is able to keep technological addiction at bay.
As per scientific experiments and past experiences, it won’t be wrong to say that increased screen time is the cause of many evils. In fact, the common ills of anxiety, depression, irritation, secrecy and withdrawal, all stem from high screen time.
Even adults and the elderly are refusing to keep the phone aside these days. With more free time on their hands and break from work, they now use their hours to explore the vast world of technology. It is common to find teens and adults bonding over educating each other about the latest technological advancement. Many children have actually made it their ‘quarantine mission’ to make their parents pros at operating their gadgets because in this day and age, not being well-versed with technology is condemned as a social embarrassment.
Very often this is reminiscent of a couplet from a poem, Mike Teavee, by Roald Dahl. I used to listen to it as a child. The lines spoke about the detrimental effects of screen exposure on children. It said, “Did you ever stop to think what this does to your beloved tot? It rots the sense in the head and kills imagination dead! It clogs and clutters up the mind and makes someone so dull and blind!”
The question that children ask their mothers the most when told to give themselves a break from the screen is, “Then what should we do?” The reply that they often get is usually regarded as useless and immaterial by the youngsters. Parents draw from their own experience as a child and say, “Well, then read.”
Before the digital revolution, the mass entertainer and educator of the world were books. Similarly, Dahl also provides the solution to this problem faced by teens in the next few lines of his poem, saying, “How did they keep themselves contended, before this monster was invented? Ok we’ll say it loud and slow: They...used...to...read. They read and read and read and then proceeded to read some more!”
Take inspiration from Dahl. Books should stop being treated like a stepchild and must be given some love. They are, after all, man’s best friend.
No one is required to read fat, bulky encyclopedias or theses. One can start by reading articles on subjects that interest them, be it sports, politics, entertainment, discoveries, etc. Search for distinguished and established books for your age and read a chapter a day. You can also ask your parents to read something to you. You will realise that your mind is much more intriguing and imaginative than you thought it was.