With the advancement in the field of technology, it has become extremely easy to have access to other people’s lives. With just a touch, you can call someone on another continent or post videos and photographs online for the world to see. But is all of it so secure? Do smartphones and social media are pawns or have the tables turned?
In this article, we shall discuss the impact of smartphones and social media on children and how parents cease to see the depth of the problem.
We blame the technology and rather aggressively shut down the room for discussion. But is this problem so easily dismissible?
We, as parents, hold the knowledge that using mobile phones and posting any sort of content online establishes our “Digital Footprint”. We may know that content once posted online, may exist forever and may come back one day to haunt us. But, yet we expel the possibility of discussing this very valuable information with our child, leaving them on their own, to trust their judgment to make the decisions.
Addiction to screens/mobile phones/social media is not as simple as it may seem. You will be shocked to know that digital addiction has a similar impact on the brain as any other substance addiction has and just telling your child to “stop using the mobile phone” or by just “taking away the phone” is not going to solve any problem, rather it is going to be the start of one.
When a child or an adult uses a smartphone, there is a release of a chemical named Dopamine. Abuse of screen time leads to flooding of dopamine chemicals because of which there is a sense of relief whenever the phone is checked. Gradually the neurotransmitter dopamine loses its capacity and renders to produce any more chemicals. No matter how much phone is used, or how many games are played online, that sense of satisfaction is just not present.
Now, while all of this is just the biological aspect, there are psychological implications too. You may take your child’s phone away, but you are not solving anything. You may start seeing your child as withdrawn not realizing that he/she is no longer a part of her peer group, there are jokes shared that they may not understand, plans that they may not be invited to, and while you are saving them from a lot of trouble, somewhere their sense of peace has vanished and an act that started as a form of saving has turned into something volatile.
The real trouble begins here. You may feel that it is a mere habit and can be controlled but your child was always genetically predisposed towards addiction, his/her low self-esteem and the sense of worthlessness just added fuel to the fire. Provided him with an escape when there was none and is slowly eating him/her from the inside, where they do wish to do better and not think about phones, but may feel a loss of control, giving birth to toxic shame at the end and getting entrapped in this vicious cycle.
Alas, you cannot simply take their phone away and you cannot in your good conscience let them destroy themselves over the hands of technology. This is where we come. At Bhatia Neuropsychiatric Hospital and The Hermitage, we offer a wide range of therapies such as rTMS, CBT, DBT, REBT, Family Counselling, and much more for not only children but parents too, so that you stand together as one in front of this addiction.
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