Dr. Parbin Ahmed
It
is no secret that the ever-growing world of technology has made our lives
smooth and easy. From booking appointments in our favourite restaurants to
finding solutions to even the most complex of problems, everything is just one
click away from us. While everything may seem hunky-dory at first look, there
is definitely more to this than it meets the eye.
The importance of technology cannot be undermined and laptops and mobile phones are definitely at the helm of this technology revolution. Everyone from a teen to an old person in their 70’s and 80’s owns a mobile phone. Phones help us to stay connected with our friends and family, even to the ones who live really far away from us. From listening to songs of our favourite artists to playing a wide variety of games, mobile phones definitely also meet our needs for entertainment.
However
there are certain problems which have risen over the last decade, problems
which have slowly crept into our lives without us even realising about them.
It’s clearly evident that today the numbers of social media users around the world are at an all time high. Everyone is glued to social media in order to stay up to date with whatever is happening around the world. People can find out what is happening in other people’s lives, be it what they are eating, which car they have bought recently, where someone has gone for vacation, etc. etc. Everything is available now on social media for free. Although this has definitely brought people closer but it also has a negative impact on people’s lives.
It's
been seen that a lot of people have started to spend more and more time on
their mobile phones. Whenever they find a little free time, even when they are
with family or friends, they would take out their phones and start scrolling
through it, though they may not have any important message or notification.
This
meaningless scrolling through different apps like YouTube etc. can have a very
adverse effect on a human being. This not only hampers the creative growth of
an individual, but they also lose their ability to focus on a particular task
for prolonged time period. For Example: It is seen that while reading a small book
of about 100 pages, kids would take 3 to 4 breaks in between as they lose their
interest on the task very quickly. Even during the break they would not give
any rest to their eyes rather they would take out their mobile phones and surf
through messages and videos.
They
also easily lose track of their time, what they initially thought of to be a
15-minute break would eventually turn out to be hour long if not more and they won’t even realise it as they would
be completely immersed on their mobile phones. Kids nowadays from very small
age like 4-5 years are given access to mobile phones and tablets, so in this
very tender age when they should be playing outside and making new friends they
would be inside their houses watching videos and making reels.
It is very important to understand that technology is not the main issue here but rather how we are misusing it. In the current world it is impossible to lead a life without mobile phones, however judicious use of this tool is also equally important. Spending long hours on this device will result in wastage of our valuable time which we will never get back.
There
is a very fine line between being dependant on something and being addicted to
something. It’s just that the line is getting more and more blurred as time is
passing by.
Rebound Mathematician Dr. Parbin Ahmed is a retired Faculty of Assam Engineering Institute. She is the Author of:-
1. Polytechnic Mathematic V-III &
Co-Author of :-
1. Polytechnic Mathematic V-I
2. Polytechnic Mathematic V-II