The death of Asim Bashir while playing PUPG, was widelycirculated as well as condoled on social media. This incident is not anisolated happening. In the recent past we have come across several suchdisturbing news items: another 11th class student who died while playing PUBG,people who died while taking selfies, a UPSC aspirant who hid his smartphone inwater bottle to cheat in the examination hall, etc. Incidents like these seemto be gradually getting normalizing in our society. The reason is obvious:smartphone (SP) addiction among the masses in general and the youth inparticular. This nuisance is touching the sky under the disguise of progressand development or under the pretension of being a ‘necessary evil’. Now, it iseasy to avoid or forget meals but it is hard to avoid scrolling throughFacebook, playing PUBG and other games, texting on WhatsApp, uploading onInstagram, unnecessarily checking mails, etc. Through selfies people now tendto capture every moment such as attending a funeral, donating blood, serving aglass of water to mom, and donating to the needy. We are so much involved in thesocial media that our Facebook friends seem to “know” us more than our parentsand even spouses. The notification bar almost always spins in our mind. We arestuck to SPs in buses and on beds, in washrooms and at junctions; evenclassrooms and libraries have been invaded. In actual practice, the virtualworld has made us unsocial in our dealings. It is imperative to identify thisnuisance and seek remedies to address it before it is too late.
The development of video games may arguably be regarded asthe dominant factor in the overuse of SPs. A decade back, during my teens,playing ‘snake game’ for half an hour or so on my sibling’s Nokia keypad mobilephone was enough to satiate my entertainment needs. Now my nephew, akindergarten kid, plays car racing and role-playing games for hours. Anyattempt to restrict his use of SP leads him to sneak to a Tablet. Forteenagers, video games providing a never-ending fun are turning no lessaddictive than substance abuse. While one could expect certain sessions or levelsin a game, the online multiplayer modes have stretched the gameplay time. Theconcept of ‘marginal utility’ may be applied to this addiction: a particularlevel cracked repeatedly produces less pleasure! Thus, each time a level iscracked, the victory over the next level seems just around the corner. The morechallenging a game, the more excitement it triggers, and the more time itconsumes. As a result, one often finds teenagers stuck to games rather thandoing their homework or indulging in real social activities.
These games are designed to keep the users hooked. Thefeedback or rewards from a sound ‘ding’ or a ‘flash light’ to ‘chicken dinner’in a game gives us a sense of accomplishment and victory. In ‘Candy CrushSaga’, the most popular game 3-4 years back, as the candies would disappearafter being crushed by matching candies of same color, we would feel relaxed asif we had gulped down some natural juice. The more we gulped this ‘virtualjuice’, the thirstier we would feel. Meanwhile, we were not obliged to pay anyrevenues to its developer as in peak days the game generated $600,000 revenueper day.
Similarly, the social media sites like Facebook, Instagram,etc. have not only bagged undue space in our lives but have also affected ourpsychology though the use of feedback in the form ‘like’, ‘comment’, ‘share’and, now, ’emotions’. A photo or status update with less number of ‘likes’ notonly disturbs the user but he/she also takes it as a public condemnation. Thisforce of ‘like’ machine forces us to expand our friend list, click the ‘like’button on contradicting posts, and haggle ourselves in unnecessary debates. Agood chunk of people even take assistance from certain software to satiatetheir appetite for ‘likes’.
The easy access to SPs and internet services at low pricesare boosting this infection, and the ‘neighborhood effect’ is no less notable.The best example of this ‘neighborhood effect’ is the residential houses oftuition centers. The schooling and the couching classes hardy spare time tostudents to engage in sports or interact with the people around them indaytime. So the students switch to SP games and social networking at night toget rid of boredom, ending only with some more tediousness in their lives. Thelate-night excessive use of such gadgets has caused sleep deprivation. The myththat ‘the less you sleep, the more intelligent you are’ has proved dreadful.The anxiety, stress, depression and many other physical problems are itsbyproducts. The ‘quality sleep’ is a must to remember facts, understandproblems, and to do creative activities but who gets a quality sleep afterspending hours on mobile phones?
Internet has become a necessity now and it is neitherpossible nor wise to say ‘no’ to it. However, we need to set some limits. SteveJobs, the developer of Apple Inc., did not introduce his children to techgadgets till they were six. Yet, our children of the same age ‘invest’ enormouspart of their lives on these gadgets. The need is to widen the world of thesechildren by introducing them to the outdoor spaces like resorts and sportsgrounds unless these turn into battle grounds in this conflict zone. Theparents need to be mindful while themselves using these gadgets in front oftheir children. We should also encourage children to avoid e-learning whenthere is an alternative. Most of the times, the ‘old-fashioned’ classroom isbetter than YouTube lecture, so is a newspaper than an online portal. As themere existence of SPs is disruptive when they are not in active use, clocks arethe best option for time update and setting alarms.
Technology has its pros and cons. How it turns out for us isfor us to decide. Certainly, its overuse has turned us oblivious to the actualworld surrounding us and ignorant of the light deep in us. To balance these isa mission in itself and to embark on this mission is the need of the hour.Let’s take this sad death of Asim as an alarm to shrug our shoulders and rubeyes to strive for a healthy, progressive and harmonious life.
Basharat Hasan is a Research Fellow at the Department ofHistory, AMU.