By Vijay Phanshikar :
l In his annual contact with school students in particular — Pariksha Pe Charcha (Discussion on Examination) — Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi once asked smilingly to the thousands of school kids present in the stadium (or auditorium) if they would follow what he would expect them to do. All children said a deafening ‘Yes’. Then Mr. Modi smiled and wondered why the kids said ‘yes’ when they did not know what he was going to ask for. Then he said, in effect, ‘Now that you have said ‘yes’ without knowing what I wished to say, let me say something very important to you. I want you to do one thing every day without fail — that is, you stay away from any technology or gadget at least for one hour during which you would not touch your cell-phone or computer or television or I-pad or any gadget. During that one hour, you would talk to the people at home, tend the garden, read books, do exercise, eat, relax, talk to friends in the immediate neighbourhood, play with your pets, play games. Do whatever you wish, but stay away from any technology or gadget. That will give you time for yourself.’
The children responded again with a loud ‘yes’, committing that they would follow the Prime Minister’s word of advice. THE importance of Mr. Narendra Modi’s effort to extract a promise from the school kids to stay away from technology or gadgets at least for one hour every day is immense. Subsequent to his appeal, countless numbers of children kept the word they gave to the Prime Minister and started staying away from technology or gadgets every day. Many other people of eminence, like the iconic writer, industrialist, philanthropist Mrs. Sudha Narayana Murthy, also follows a more or less similar path advising children to stay away from gadgets, at least for some time, every day. Mrs. Sudha Murthy says in unambiguous words, in effect, that the kids would help themselves and their families and the society and the country if they carved out some time for themselves without the company of gadgets. Motivational speakers such as Gaur Gopal Das, Gyanvatsal Swami, spiritual leader Sadhguru, Vidushi Jaya Kishoriji and many others also say the same thing over and over again.
That is so because all of them have realised the dangers of unmitigated addiction to gadgets, especially the smartphones, everybody today seems to possess. These great people realise the importance of staying away from addiction of any kind. They tell countless stories to youngsters to motivate them to steer clear of the addiction to gadgets like smartphones. At another level, however, the story is rather different, in the sense that most families and teachers and elders do not seem to be aware of the dangers involved in addiction to technology like smartphones. There certainly are some people who caution their youngsters against smartphone addiction but their numbers are small and effect they have on kids is also minimal because whatever they say is rather tentative. Against this background, the loud-thinker has only one question: Why don’t we follow what the Prime Minister and others say about the addiction to technology and gadgets?
