Human behaviour and relationships have been transformed as social media addiction has become a disturbing reality. It has led to horrific extremes like parricide, filicide and even suicide—three sisters denied mobile phones jumping off their ninth-floor flat in Ghaziabad being a recent case in point. In Gujarat, a family hired bouncers to monitor an aggressive youngster with screen addiction. Undoubtedly, a new disorder is growing across the nation—NoMophobia, the fear of being without a mobile.
Parents are heedlessly walking into a minefield as babies under a year old are getting dependent on phones that are often used as pacifiers. A recent study by AIIMS Delhi found that such babies could show signs of autism by the age of three, besides sleep disorders and reduced physical activity. As it impacts brain development, the affected children display a lack of healthy social interaction, repetitive behaviour and slow reactions. A study conducted on 84,030 mother-child pairs in Japan in 2022 showed similar results. Last year, an AIIMS Raipur study had found that Indian children aged below five spend an average of 2.2 hours a day on screens, leading to poor social skills, obesity, disturbed sleep and weaker concentration. The concern assumes alarming proportions when you consider that mobile addiction is crossing the age barrier to include senior citizens, too. All of this portends a social crisis in the making.
Adults need to take tough decisions on screen time for children and themselves, and seeking professional help to do this must be normalised. Nimhans in Bengaluru has set up the Service for Healthy Use of Technology Clinic and a digital detox helpline, a first in the country. Parents must heed expert advice on zero screen exposure for infants under 18 months and minimal exposure beyond that up to the age of five. It would also help to nurture physical play, interactive storytelling and family time. It is a welcome step that schools have started barring mobiles on premises. The next measure is restricting social media for adolescents by law, which a few countries have enacted and several others, including India, are considering. But before we fall down a rabbit hole, parents must step up to draw the line and reclaim lost childhoods.