Parenting in the gadget era is tough

“Reality is for losers who don’t play video games’… a poster for the virtual world proclaims and makes a statement of sorts for today’s children whose entire activity is driven by technology. With smart phones expected to touch 651 million just a year from now as per estimates of technology giant CISCO,” nomophobia” coined to represent the fear of not having a mobile phone is just one among a whole lot of fears and addictions that have percolated downwards from parents to children.

Common to today’s “digital natives” are cases of children turning suicidal over not owning a gadget of their choice. S Purnima, a counselor attached to a private educational institution in Hyderabad says she has counseled a student who attempted suicide more than once because his parents did not get him the gadget that his best friend owned.

“The boy was not satisfied after his parents got him the phone of his choice the first time around. He attempted suicide one more time asking for a more sophisticated one” she says. Giving in to the demands made by children then, are no guarantee that they will stop making more of them, a lesson that parents need to learn sooner than later.

Exposed to technology from the time they are toddlers, many children are losing their social skills and ability to react to the real world. With little or no interaction between parents and children behavioural problems with serious repercussions are being reported not just in metros but in Tier 11 cities across the country.

Gadget de-addiction centres springing up in different parts of the country are an indication of how deep rooted the malaise is. While there is no definition for the growing phenomenon of “gadget addiction,” it is generally considered a condition where the use of gadgets prevents a person from maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In Delhi, Uday Foundation, a Non-profit organisation runs an Internet de-addiction centre to help patients where most of the children diagnosed with this problem are from the ever increasing nuclear and working class families.

Most parents today use smart phones, I pads and other gadgets as a replacement for baby sitters and to keep kids occupied at social gatherings where they can carry on conversations undisturbed. Arresting this addiction which worsens as they grow becomes impossible if is not nipped in the bud. Disturbing incidents across the country reveal that not all content available on modern gadgets is harmless.

Video games with violence and destructive content, chatting, pornography and morphing have in the recent past been identified as causes for increasing cases of crimes committed by children against children and those by predators who lure children online.

It’s time parents realize that gadgets cannot be used as substitutes for parenting. Spending time with the family, exercise and outdoor games, theatre, music, dance and book reading activities that involve interpersonal relations ensure that children grow up without behavioral problems.Brooding children glued to gadgets are certainly not going to blossom into healthy adults.