By Izzah
Even before the world was pushed to practically live online, I would talk to dreary eyed peers suffering from lack of sleep. All because of one invention : the internet.
Before lockdown, statistics suggested that an average person spent six hours online. Note this too, for 8-10 year olds, an average of eight hours a day using electronic gadgets. Some studies even suggested for teenagers, time on the internet had galloped to eleven hours.
How bizarre is that?
Effect of screen time – the domino effect
As hinted earlier, those who entertain themselves at night via devices become sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation will domino into brain fog. Will that affect every part of someone’s life during the day?
They say words don’t hurt the bones unlike sticks and stones. Yet cyber bullying is a killer. Many, many, school and college students commit suicide every year, from cyber bullying.
A life unfulfilled?
Nowadays students are expected to go on social media on devices that ping constantly. A new message to an isolated teenager is just asking to be responded to isn’t it? Are we setting up university students to fail? How on earth are they to concentrate on the task on hand? I went along and also asked Professor Kutluk Ozguven a professor of artificial intelligence in Istanbul, Turkey how students can help themselves. This is what he thought: "One way may be taking notes and doing work on pen and paper rather than on computers. But that requires learning to write readably and efficiently. Another may be excursions or long walks in the countryside without phones. Another can be to have days without computers. There can be many ways to make people realize there is life without the internet."
And Professor is there a problem with students copying essays and stuff from the vast library of prepared essays, just a click away on Google?
Professor Kutluk: "Nowadays people read mostly over the computers and the internet. Even novels are mostly being read over computerised reading devices such as Kindle or the like. Newspapers are becoming online. Paper is disappearing. That also means all content is being controlled centrally by the digital broadcasters of those devices. In such a case of paper disappearing nobody can publish subversive or revolutionary material or intellectual iconoclasm that challenges established opinions, which is dangerous for open societies. We can prevent all these by making sure printing on paper continues. Also, we can make people avoid repeating others' opinions or findings by encouraging them to present their own conclusions or opinions. To me, copying is not the main issue for society to worry. Not enhancing and furthering opinions and conclusions is the problem."
I also asked Professor Catriona Morrison from Bradford University, about her views of internet addiction:
"To begin with, internet addiction is becoming a real issue. As a psychologist I am very concerned over the term "addiction", so I would label it, to be cautious, as 'dependence'. " There is certainly concern about increasing reliance on the internet, particularly in the current situation. The question is: are they using it for all the right reasons (learning, information gathering, communicating), rather than the wrong ones (e.g., gambling, gratifying websites, gossip). Students should stick primarily to books and peer-reviewed articles for their work. However, the internet continues to evolve, it is being better regulated, and we have to accept that this is becoming an immediate way of getting information."
I know technically you are reading this on the internet. So maybe the online world with all its information sharing ability isn’t too bad. Professor Catriona is optimistic:
"My final thought is that most of the stuff students engage in on the internet is good and constructive. So while I do have concerns about the risk of over-dependence, on balance I think it is a force for good."
What we can do to stop more screen time?
Look back to the recommendations of Professor Kutluk. You can try a week, without going on your phone, and use the computer only for assignments or work. Print out anything you need to study and read the physical sheets. Believe me you can sleep more easily. To those of you, who struggle to sleep, give it a go.
Don’t cut off online activity completely. You may want to limit your social media use and when lockdown ends meet with friends in person or go outside and get some fresh air which actually benefits not only your lungs but your mind and soul too and makes you feel happier. Limit it for mind expanding purposes such as reading the City Bugle and buying books. Work out how much screen time is the maximum daily limit for yourself and stick to it.
Surely we can all do any other activity instead of plugging into a screen. I know what you are thinking: ‘Doing an activity without gratifying notifications is no fun at all’, but think about it, children from the nineteenth century look very happy in photographs, so what did they use to do for fun? Maybe you can ask your parents or grandparents what they did for suggestions. If you are a parent who is addicted to the internet maybe you can focus more on physical tasks and spend some time with your children. Happiness is not from staying up late on the internet, even if it is trying to keep to work deadlines, but from spending time with your family (which is why you were working to those deadlines in the first place) and you may even find a new hobby or, if you're very determined, find yourself in the process.
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