Mommy - I want the Mobile!

 I recently had the privilege to talk to a group of parents and children (7-14 yr old) on perils of Digital communication at a workshop.

I went in assuming whole lot of gyan, but what surprised me was the children giving all the gyan ..against digital medium. And now before you exult on the generation being saved from the evil clutches..a la star wars style..No, our kids are not giving up on digital medium. Not anytime soon.

While this bunch was totally well informed about why they must not spend so much time on gadgets, it also explained why it wont give up on it. Here, I am listing few of the things why they love to spend time on gadgets and where I think their thoughts have come from.

1. Competitive streak - As parent we all want our kids to excel in their chosen fields. We are the first source where they learn that coming first in class gets you rewarded. Coming last, is not a good thing. it does not matter that you were a Picasso competing in a class of Einsteins. From standing first in line to ensuring that the child sings perfect nursery rhymes when guests arrive, we push them. No wonder, these kids learn to be competitive much before they learn to handle victory or failure. During the talk, this was one of the primary things which came out. These kids wanted to be on video games so that they could win the game, go to next level or unlock the next thing. They play the games for hours to get the perfect score. They get angry or upset when they don't get that perfect score. Perfect example of being thrown into track and field events at Olympics with an oxygen cylinder.

2. Peer pressure - All my friends are on video games and I have to be on it too. All my friends have mobiles, I want it too. Mr. Gupta bought a Ferrari, I would want one too. Mrs. Bansal went on a Europian holiday, I want to go too...sounds familiar? kids learn more by observing than by our lecturing. 

3. I would love to play outdoors but there is no park/ No one plays - Children by their inherent nature love to play. With growing demands on them, their social calender looks more busier than the President. As parents its important for us to make an effort to form a play group and to enforce the one hour daily outdoor play routine. When we can make so much effort to find the best classes for them, if we think this to be important enough, am sure we will find a way for this too.

4. Convenient addiction - Believe it or not 99% of the kids are exposed to mobile phones and gadgets by their parents. Parenting is demanding. Modern day parenting is the biggest catastrophe. We want to be such perfect parents and raise such perfect kids that we over invest ourselves. What remains is a tired human being who needs some timeout and an escape from its own kid. Come over the gadgets and save the poor parents. And the kids are smart enough to know it. They know that their parents give them the gadgets to escape spending time with them.

The session opened by eyes to how ahead the current generation of kids are. They already know competition, peer pressure, addiction, exploitation..none of this was part of the childhood I knew. With such smart kids, it should be easy enough to hold a discussion on pros and cons of digital medium and convince them logically? Well yes. Only that they have one question to ask : What makes you spend so much time on screen if it is so dangerous for me?