[1]You think you are the only parent dealing with a difficult kid, who prefers the Internet and mobile to family and cousins? Take heart, you’re not alone. A study shows that children, especially teenagers, across cities spend 35 hours every week surfing the Internet, mainly social networking sites, or keep busy with their mobile phones.
How-ever, child counsellors say their social skills are not exactly im-proving and so parents are ge-aring up to deal with new concerns.
Make-up ex-pert Meenakshi Dutt says her son Kartiky, 18, barely spends time with the family. “He is always occupied with his mobile phone or laptop. He goes out with his friends and if I make a plan for us to go out, it’s a struggle. At times, I have to request him to leave his phone behind and have dinner with us,” she shares.
Psychologist Dr Geeta-njali Kumar is facing a similar equation. Though an expert, she finds it difficult to deal with son Aakar, 18. “Today’s generation is living in a virtual world. Their communication skills are not improving. They are getting so bad with their conversation skills that they don’t know how to even converse,” she says.
Meenakshi further adds, “The biggest problem is that children no longer read. Though they have a good IQ they are dependent on the Inter-net for everything. If you keep them away from the phone or laptop even for a day, they will collapse.”
Though parents are concerned, teens have no qualms in saying that they are delivering what is expected of them. Tanish Gupta, 17, student of engineering, says, “As long as I score well in my exams, my parents should not complain. They should be happy that I spend more time at home. My computer and phone is enough company for me.”
There is a solution to every problem in life, and Dr Kumar suggests, “Parents need to tell their children how it feels when they are ignored in place of a gadget. One day children will realise how they are loosing out on the better things in life,” she sums up.
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