NOMOPHOBIA

A Threat to Childhood.

- Samir Ranjan Majumdar

Indeed, the cellphone is undoubtedly a helpful tool in the world of education and learning. But too much or excessive dependence on cellphones and allowing children unmonitored access to cell phones and digital technology not only destroys their ability to focus on just one thing at a time, reduces their ability to retain information, makes them irritating or show inappropriate behaviour but also seem to have turned their world into a lonely place.

A teenage girl in some part of West Bengal was recently found to have attempted to sell her blood to purchase a cellphone because her mother turned down her request to buy her one.

Advik, a 3-year-old child, will not eat food until he is given a cellphone. While he accesses the comic videos and becomes engrossed in watching them, while his mother feeds him and he gulps down the food.

When his mother goes to take bath, Ayush, a 6-year-old child, takes her cellphone, hids in a bedsheet, and watches motor race videos tuning down the volume to almost nil.

Anwesha, a 10-year-old girl, becomes angry and irritable when the phone is taken away from her or she is unable to use the phone. Viewing the screen continuously for a long time has already harmed her eyes and affected her eyesight.

A 13-year-old class VII student in a part of Gujarat not only stole cash from his house but also used his mother's debit card details to pay for an online game.

On 23 November 2022, a 12-year student of class VI of Islampur, West Bengal committed suicide because his parents scolded him for playing too much on the mobile phone and ignoring his studies.

Triparna, a student of engineering, uses the smartphone as a helpful and hugely productive tool. She got her PAN, aadhaar, voter identity card, ration card, and passport for her grandparents by making an online application through her smart android mobile phone.