By Saumyata Joshi:

Gone are the days of that glorious age where children were presumed to be created in the image of the divine. A child was an epitome of honesty and innocence but in the contemporary society, the situation is no longer the same. This tragic change in the image of a child could be credited to the rapid technological advances in the 21st century, specifically the dot com bubble which was triggered by the forces of neo-liberalism.

Children preferring computer games over outdoor sports is a very serious and grave issue. To understand the situation we need to divulge into the psyche of the modern child. This child is simultaneously living in two worlds i.e., real and the virtual. But the alarming fact is that this child believes in his latter identity more than the former one. Virtual space gives a false sense of connection with the outside world. The baseless foundation on which the child creates his mirror image in this virtual world gives him false hopes and literally leaves no scope of his returning to reality. He tends to evaluate his achievements in proportionality to the number of likes on his Facebook page instead of assessing the overall impact of the said activity on his personality.

Addiction to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter contribute in making a child socially awkward. The same narcissistic child of the virtual world is unable to present himself in the real society. This lack of confidence hampers the growth of the child. But the problem does not end here, this same child also begins to suffer from various health problems from a very tender age. We must keep in mind that “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy.” No physical exercise hinders the mental and physical growth of the child. Rapid globalization causes drastic change in the lifestyles of people giving them extra comfort which spoils the personality of the child in the long run.

“I basked in the sun, I slept beneath the moon; I led a life of going to be done, and died with nothing done.” Modern child is tangled in the web of procrastination and is unable to free himself from the vicious cycle of technology. When a child asks for an Mp3 player instead of a cricket bat, or when he turns down an offer to play badminton to try out a new video game online; the whole situation gets problematic. Easy access to each and every file on the internet becomes dangerous because a young undeveloped mind interprets a certain piece of information without any rationality.

Parents who are busy minting money for their child forget that it is not the money but they themselves is what the child requires the most in his budding years. Jean Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century philosopher argued that man by nature was good but it was civilization that corrupted him. Hence it becomes essential for us to help the child grow morally correct. What is important is to strike a harmonious balance between the technological advances and the social world so that the child gets the best of both the worlds. We must remember that in every adult there dwells the child that was and in every child there lies the adult that will be.