Declining childhood, growing addictions

Declining childhood, growing addictions
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Declining Childhood, Growing Addictions, The simple pleasures of childhood seem to be the thing of the past.

The simple pleasures of childhood seem to be the thing of the past. Days of jumping in the woods, climbing the trees and mountains, going on family picnics and exploring old tombs are now practically extinct. The current generation of youngsters are way afar from the treasures of nature, playing the ‘Temple Run’ and shooting pigs with the ‘Angry Birds’ – all on the tablets and smartphones. The action is now ingrained live on the virtual medium that is soon dragging the little people in the households into a chronic addiction. The children these days do not exuberate idiosyncrasy for things not ’deciphered’ anymore – they are way ahead, super informed about things as compared to the adults of present times.

The changing face of urban India is now seeing the new procreation of young minds that are hooked and addicted to TV, Gadgets and Smartphones. Information explosion has taken a new turn with children being overcooked with things that are not on a need to know basis anymore. Starting from the General Knowledge to Science and Literature, current affairs to sports, Cartoons to PlayStation, our little geniuses willingly delve into seeking the unknown with fancy gizmos that leave even the parents gaped. While technology has made a paradigm shift with the learning process at schools and homes, the over abuse of the same has its ramifications on the flipside.

Teachers now agree that while learning has now found a new breakthrough with virtual classrooms, video conferenced tuitions and webinars, children are slowly sinking into the electronic medium. They are so obsessed with the online world that the real life has now shifted its base on to the screen. Many parents also agree to the fact that their children spend more time watching the cartoons and playing on the tablets while not studying. A quick rundown to the park in the society has become a pain area rather than a sheer joy to the little ones laden with gamut of options in gaming.
With the Angry Bird and Chota Bheem revolution happening in the urban homes, busy parents with 12 to 15 hours of work life also contribute to catalysing the growing addiction. The children these days do not know the meaning of simple joys that happen over a game of basketball with their peers or grabbing an ice cream while walking in a garden. The routine of a 12 year old has become as hectic as a youngster with a job in the 20s. Experts state that addiction to the electronic media is a result of stress that gets accumulated with burdened assignments and a plethora of school projects.
There is a growing need for parents to now actively monitor their kids – something that domestic help or grandparents cannot replace with. However, the financial commitments and ever increasing cost of education is driving the parents crazy as well. While some of them try to work a balance, the others with tougher jobs and heavy deadlines resort to moral support in order to fend for themselves. With growing children from an age of seven to fifteen, the working parents do not see the crushing need to do a close supervision.
Evidently the influence of cartoons, films and games is casting a direct impact on the performance of kids in their academic studies. More schools are now opting to educate both the parents and children about the need to ‘cut down’ the screen time to zero. The exposure of gaming on child’s mind is very strong, state the experts. Same holds good with TV channels that air cartoons 24 hours a day, unlike the time when they were given a limited time slot every day. This makes it all the more difficult for children to come out of the cycle.
Simply put, the gadgets have already started ruling the human civilization end to end. There is an increasing need for parents to bring back the good old times of spending quality time camping, trekking, playing in the sun and getting drenched in the rain. The ongoing virtual revolution has massive negative effects, that which include leading the kids to various lifestyle related ailments, both emotional and physical.
There is a strong need for training the children to cut away from prolonged enslavement. A lot of effort will have to go in to bring in the change. Teachers and the counsellors now rest this responsibility entirely on the parents.
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