Talking Shop: Enfants Terribles

“Technology is a useful

servant, but it can be a

dangerous master too.”

—Christian Lous Lange

Today’s youngsters are strikingly unorthodox, innovative, quite avant-garde; enfant terribles they are. They are also great at aping adults, so much so that the Internet is awash with videos posted by doting parents. In the parents’ eyes, these are masterpieces of their little ones cooing and cawing while watching ongoing shenanigans intently on Smartphone and tablet screens. Adoring parents cannot fathom the deadly toll this superficially cute pastime takes on youngsters. Statistics reveal that, increasingly, children under the age of 10 years are dying of heart attacks if their ‘screens’ are taken away from them. And those who think that this is only happening in Western countries need to think again, for India is catching up fast.

If cardiac issues seem a bit intense and ultimate to some, they should read what studies reveal, that such occurrences are growing at a ferocious clip. Many ‘normal’ children enslaved by the wondrous world of colourful screens can barely read even the simplest text at school, and find it taxing to solve the most basic of math problems. Many ‘normal’ children fall well short of the performance of even those affected by Dyslexia, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and myriad neurodevelopmental disabilities of childhood. Infant girls might just be worse off, given the increasing instances of gender dysphoria, anxiety, depression and self-harm seen among them.

Wikipedia is as un-emotional as it is matter of fact when it states that these disorders are “reflected by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness and emotional disregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and otherwise age-inappropriate”. You and I are not as inanimate as Wikipedia, I hope, for today is surely the time to take note and act.

What is happening?

Nothing good, I can assure you. Take the case of Uttar Pradesh—recently, a young girl, all of 6 years of age, slumped while immersed in her phone screen. A horrified mother rushed the little one to the hospital, where she was declared “brought dead”. No autopsy was performed as the parents refused to give permission for this. In 9 other similar cases, autopsies were performed and the cause of death in 7 was “cardiac arrest”. In Orissa, the trend is frighteningly similar, and I am mentioning these comparatively ‘non-urban’ states only to drive home the acerbity of the problem. Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and other ‘advanced’ Indian cities show startlingly worse statistics.

What of the rest of the world? Let’s consider some grim numbers to understand the extremity of the problem. Worldwide, of every 1,000 live births, phones and other screen-reliant devices have been found to cause an Under-Five Mortality Rate of around 46, while Infant Mortality Rate stands at 25—that’s 71 lives per 1,000 lost to the sticky screen. Other findings include a progressive global decline in the mental health of each new generation across the Net-enabled world. In India, Smartphone use among children is pegged at 83 per cent, 7 per cent higher than the global average of 76 per cent.

PS: An offshoot of excessive screen-time is stubbornness—we all see kids create a scene and cause acute embarrassment for parents in malls and public places, when denied anything that catches their fancy. The only saving grace is that such behaviour falls short of being suicidal (or murderous). Talk about silver linings…

Draconian choice

The flipside is that by other yardsticks, kids are thriving, growing up to be more successful as adults. However, trends of anxiety, depression and suicide are increasing enough to stop us in our tracks. There’s also an alarming choice parents now face and grapple with—is it preferable to have our children and teens drinking, smoking, taking drugs and potentially getting pregnant, or them bingeing on social media, having nervous breakdowns, taking prescription drugs and potentially committing suicide? Obviously, most surveyed chose the former situation, but what a choice…

Physically (and medically) speaking, the problem is that children today are predominantly sedentary and thus at an increased risk of heart damage and mental ailments in early adulthood, regardless of weight and blood pressure. Prolonged screen-use during childhood has been found to be harmful to neurological development and socialisation. Even teenagers can have heart attacks or myocardial infarctions. In adults, heart attacks are caused by the lack of oxygen due to a ‘pipeline blockage’. In teenagers, they were typically caused by a congenital heart defect present at birth, but unnoticed. Now, they are increasingly being caused by lack of sleep, a direct result of excessive screen-time.

Mobile phone usage by children in India shows a disturbing trend, with an average of 5-8 hours being spent online every single day, around 3,000 hours each year. Before Smartphones and other screen-heavy devices became commonplace, kids would spend that same time playing cricket, football, flying kites, playing marbles and whatnot. Not engaging in physical activity, not hanging out with family and friends, and just being glued to the screen is today causing not only muscle atrophy, it is debilitating our mental flexibility and capacities too.

What can we do?

If you are a parent, you can pray. Mirthless lighter side aside, the desperate need is to cut out or at least limit the time spent on things digital, making children indulge in other pastimes, preferably physical pursuits. A good starting point would be to delay for as long as possible the introduction of children to gadgets they are now known to schmooze on. The paradox is that in most instances, it is today’s ‘busy’ parents who use mobile phones as a crutch to buy themselves time for pursuits professional and personal. They give phones to children and, in the process, cripple them.

An anonymous quote that I read recently clanged a bell in me and started me thinking about this issue. It said: “Children are great imitators. So, give them something great to imitate.” Think hard and deep. All that today’s hapless youngsters are doing is aping their adults. Watching their mother and father or near ones glued to mobile phone, tablet and laptop screens, the little ones are only doing the same to seek ‘global’ acceptance. And soon, they are hooked.

Alarmingly, things are so bad that this blasé trait is not limited anymore to human children alone. The other day, I was astounded when a US car detailing channel on social media gave away the winner’s merch(andise) to a young girl. Why? Well, because the 20-something lass sent in a video of her tiny, black kitten watching cars being washed on her laptop for hours on end, going a very indignant maaaooo if the channel was changed.

We can learn from this young girl, as we should from Vladimir Lenin’s quote: “Give me four years to teach the children, and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” We really should learn. In those four formative years, we need to exercise grave caution—only that will reflect love, smartness and sensibility, as will moving our own noses away from our own gadgetry and screens.

The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist. He can be reached on narayanrajeev2006@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal