HYDERABAD : “Alu Kachalu beta kahan gaye the
Gobi ki tokri mein so rahe the
Gobi ne laat maari ro rahe the
Mummy ne pyaar kiya
Hans rahe the...”
These are the lines from the popular ‘Alu Kachalu’ characters of Jugnu TV on YouTube, which has 5.57 million subscribers. Another well-known channel, ChuChu TV has 27.5 million subscribers. These channels have become the lifeline of young parents who want their children to eat their meals without creating much fuss. There is a good chance you have heard the ‘Baby shark’ song even if you have no children in your life. Says Manomay Singh, who has a one-year-old son, “My kid loves these songs. It takes a lot of energy to raise a kid as they need to be engaged round the clock.
These videos help us to feed the child four meals a day. His favourites are ChuChu TV and Cocomelon channels. These animated characters with big eyes and the colourful videos captivate children’s mind.”
Manomay is just one of the many young parents who are increasingly relying to technology to keep their children engaged. With smartphones being an integral part of modern life, children are exposed to multiple screens from an early age.
These YouTube channels, which often have educational messages too, have managed to understand what toddlers like, and also help them to eat their meals. For eg., through its Alu (potato), tomato, Gobhi (cauliflower) and other characters, Jugnu TV claims that to be encouraging children to eat their veggies. However, Ankita Tiwari, who has a daughter, soon learned that dependency on the videos was not a good thing. “Watching these videos work in the sense that the children finish their food without any fuss. Parents do this to make their lives easy, but I am against the practice.
Once they start depending on it, it’s very difficult to make them eat without showing any videos. They throw tantrums as they know that once the parents get irritated, they will be allowed to watch the channels. I also fell prey to the same thing, but now, no gadget is allowed for her at home. My daughter has become more social now,” she shares.
This dependency on gadgets is a reflection of our changing family structure too. “Most of us now have nuclear families in which the children do not live with their grandparents. Double-income families are becoming increasingly common where both the parents go to work. So the role of storytelling has been taken over by these channels from the elders in the family,” says Rajyalaksmi Reddy, another young mother.
Positive reinforcement
Dr Pragya Rashmi, senior psychologist, says that there is no need to demonise technology. “Everything boils down to conditioning. It’s a reward and punishment system. To make an organism learn or unlearn a certain behaviour, you give a positive reinforcement or punishment. Parents usually do this without realising it. But we cannot blame technology for this as it can be used in fruitful ways. There are many channels that are designed to educate kids, and there is no harm in watching those channels. Parents need to decide whether they want technology to be a babysitter, or an enabler in their children’s education.”
Harmful blue light
Dr Sharat Babu Chilukuri, chief medical director and MD of Sharat Maxivision Eye Hospitals, says: “Wi-Fi emits electromagnetic waves that can affect the development of brain among children. Blue light emissions from LCD screens affect the eyes. If they sit near a TV, children are exposed to both the Wi-Fi and blue light. The ideal solution is to completely ban screens for children. When they keep looking at an object placed close to their eyes, they are prone to myopia.
If the children are already wearing glasses, constant screen time can increase the power of the spectacles very fast. So, it is advisable to wear UV-protection glasses while watching these channels. However, nowadays, children have to constantly interact with their phones because teachers and schools are communicating increasingly through them. Perhaps, the change has to start from there.”
kakoli_mukherjee@newindianexpress.com @KakoliMukherje2