Salaam dear young friends. Hope you are all fine by the Grace of Almighty Lord. Here in the Islamic Republic of Iran and many other countries, youngsters have been started their face-to-face classes and their schools, universities and other educational institutions are slowly being opened.
Many of our young friends may had or having their end semester exams and some of these exams are still being conducted online by the schools and universities.
Usually the students are happy that schools have been closed, and the excitement of getting out of school can quickly turn into boredom and frustration about having nothing to do. So the most important question for you will be how to spend these days?
Most of you will answer that we can enjoy them by doing some creative or educational things, spend the time with family members and friends or join some online classes to learn something new. These answers are great, but the truth in the society is something else.
Dear friends, as you know with the changes in technology, new challenges are coming up on a daily basis for the young generation. New kinds of phobias have emerged (the so-called techno-phobias). Since the first mobile phone was introduced to the consumer market in 1983, these devices have become significantly mainstream in the majority of societies.
The young and trendy generation of today judges itself, according to the kind of gadgets it possesses. The popularity of gadgets among youth has ensured that newer and trendier devices are introduced every passing day. The addiction to gadgets has been to such an extent in the society that it has become unthinkable of a life without a gadget. The effect of these gadgets has been tremendous, and it is often debated that whether the impact that it has made on the youth is a positive or negative one.
Among students, frequent cell phone usage has been correlated with decreases in grade point average (GPA) and increased anxiety that negatively impacts self-reported life satisfaction (well-being and happiness) in comparison to students with less frequent usage. GPA decreases may be due to the over-use of cell phone or computer usage consuming time and focus during studying, attending class, working on assignments, and the distraction of cell phones during class. Over-usage of cell phones may increase anxiety because of continually being connected to social networks and could rob chances of perceived solitude.
Nomophobia is the new term which has been coined for such type of addiction to the gadgets or better to say to mobile phones. The symptoms of this phobia are depression, panic, fear, dependence, rejection, low self-esteem and loneliness.
Insha Allah, if Almighty God wishes we will discuss more with our young readers on this topic.
Goodbye till next week.