A child’s mind is an empty canvas. It is painted in accordance with the external environment and stimuli that the child experiences in their daily life. Instead of being imaginative, mischievous and youthful beings of energy, children today are reduced to their thumbs and eyeballs- trapped in the two-dimensional world of mobile phones and ipads. The term ‘iPad kids’ is widely used these days to refer to the children of Gen Alpha, those born in the time period 2010-2024. Especially after the pandemic, almost all children have their own devices and unlimited access to the internet. This is severely affecting their social, physical and cognitive development.
Excessive screen time is causing behavioural issues in children. They are becoming aggressive, lethargic and developing short attention spans. The flashy movements and soundtracks of games and shows are causing sensory overload in the fragile minds of young children. More and more children are developing anxiety, and are depressed and tired. Teachers state these iPad kids cannot read or write properly. Their vocabulary is limited by autocorrect and short forms. Excessive screen time also affects their language development. Children cannot sit still in classes or focus for a long period of time. They lack the imagination to critically think, or even do simple tasks such as drawing a picture on their own. The blue light from screens is causing myopia and disrupting sleep patterns-desynchronizing the body clock. Children no longer know how to socialise and interact with others. Many video games affect empathy in children and promote violence and aggressive behaviour. Children are too young to accurately distinguish the virtual world from the real world, endangering themselves and those around them. Being hunched over smartphones or tablets for long periods of time affects posture leading to back pain and headaches. Obesity in children is at an all-time rise due to a lack of outdoor physical activity. A study called Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) revealed that some kids who use screens more than eight hours a day have a thinner cortex than those who were exposed to less screen time.
Doom scrolling is the act of actively seeking out saddening or negative material to read or scroll through on social media or news media outlets. The idea behind doom scrolling is attempting to get access to all the information one needs to keep oneself protected and informed. This leads to anxiety, uncertainty about the future as well as restlessness and helplessness. Many times we find ourselves scrolling on our phones endlessly. Scrolling releases dopamine, happy chemicals in our brain and we get hooked on this momentary pleasure. However, when these reward pathways are overused, one becomes less sensitive and requires even more stimuli to feel pleasure. Doom scrolling alters how our brain interprets and feels.
It is imperative for parents to limit their children’s screen time. Children need to go run around in the sun, splash around in the mud and just be kids again. We get our youth only once and it should not be wasted aimlessly. Children should escape from the realm of the virtual world and live to their fullest in the real world. We are so invested in other people’s lives on social media and experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out) that we forget to live our own lives sometimes. Beyond the filters and Snapchat stories, lies the present moment which will never come back. So instead of living through Instagram stories or our favourite character in video games, let’s close our eyes, take a deep breath in and live as ourselves.