Stealing our time, attention and focus
Safer Internet Day or SID is observed on the second Tuesday of February, every year. Last year it was observed on February 6 and this year it falls today on February 11. This day is dedicated to international education and awareness-raising effort to empower families to use technology safely especially among children and teenagers. Currently it is celebrated in more than 100 countries across the globe. Whether we are working online or learning, playing and scrolling – the internet has become a rather indispensable part of routine affairs of our daily life. It opens a world of opportunities, but also comes with great risks, especially for young people and other at-risk groups.
The need to introduce the concept of safer internet was deeply felt after coming across a not so welcome statistics on this subject. As for instance, 70% of Australian adults have had at least one negative experience online. Similarly 29% of First Nations children have experienced online hate speech and 31% of LGBTIQ + teens have experienced the same. The data also shows that 45% of kids aged 8-17 have been treated in a hurtful or nasty way and 32% of gamers of this age have been bullied while playing games online. Consequently the idea of safer internet came into being in 2004 with an aim to strengthen the bonds with countries outside the network and to promote a campaign across the globe.
Today, more than 100 SID Committees are working closely with the Safer Internet Day Coordination Team which is based at the heart of the European Union in Brussels. This year marks the 19th edition of Safer Internet Day since its inception as an initiative of the EU Safe Borders project in 2004. It was taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005. Insafe is a European network for Safer Internet Centres (SICs). Each and every national center that spreads awareness and runs educational campaigns runs a helpline and also works closely with youth to ensure an evidence-based, multi-stakeholder approach towards creating a better internet.
Besides online fraud and deceit, internet is also deeply interfering with our personal order. We have unintentionally become less sociable, less approachable and overall less interesting. Internet addiction is a subtle thief that is stealing our time, attention and focus.
It is indeed a slow poison to intellect. Parents are deeply worried by the declining academic performances of their children. Some kids are experiencing health consequences from the loss of sleep as they stay up for a long time to continue scrolling, chatting, and gaming. Excessive Internet use is not yet recognized as a disorder by the American Psychiatric Association but it may get entertained soon. Controversy around the diagnosis includes whether the disorder is a separate clinical entity, or a manifestation of underlying psychiatric disorders. However, gaming disorders already appear in the International classification of diseases or what we call ICD. This is developed and annually updated by the World Health Organization (W.H.O).
In a world of endless online information, Safer Internet Day aims at exploring ways to empower children to thrive well while being equipped with skills to navigate both the opportunities and challenges of these powerful online influences. The applications like AI Chatgpt are for the researchers and scientists to seek some immediate, instant, urgent and authentic information during the course of their research work, manipulations and analysis. Similarly DeepSeek is for those who are seeking deep knowledge of some subjects. For those who are not of a ripe age yet, may instead focus on building the configuration of the supercomputer fitted in their skull. Use your brains and not the apps for God's sake.
Running the apps and getting the output information is no big deal. Let the children be rather motivated to learn the Mathematics, coding, and computer science behind the working of such applications. Perhaps in the same context, the celebrations of this year are centered around the theme, “Prepare/ Protect/ Thrive: Navigating Algorithms and Influencers.” The aim is to invite parents, teachers, trainers, mentors, doctors, young people, teenagers and all stakeholders to consider how algorithms and influencers shape the lives of young people. Learning technology is better than just using it. Albert Einstein is credited with saying, "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". However, Einstein did say, "I believe that the abominable deterioration of ethical standards stems primarily from the mechanization and depersonalization of our lives" in 1948.
My take on the subject is two-fold. While as there is an online way of curbing the online menace, there is also an offline way to go about it. In other words a proper admixture of online and offline content can keep us safe and happy. In general, an adult and apprised person spends time by weights and measures and rightly so. We see people maintaining logbooks to appropriately segment and section the time. Time is managed as a currency to do what could be purposeful and peaceful. However, time management seems to be a problem with our youngsters.
When we were young, time would amount to a treasure full of leisure, plentiful and unbound. Luckily, we were also groomed nicely to learn to tap well the most precious resource of time. Going school and coming back for homework and then going out again to darsgah/madrasa for Quranic teachings used to be a healthy daily routine. The Sundays would be playful, outgoing and joyous. Even now, it may be the same procedure or process over and again but in principle it has turned highly virtual and vain. The reason is being online and not on the line. Those on tiktok are very unlikely to be on the track.
In the offline world that we have cherished in the childhood, we would solve the sudoku, work out a numerical problem, polish the rules of English grammar, draw a diagram, paint a picture, read a book and consult a dictionary along with, ponder on the well knit phrases, recoil with the tricky riddles, plant a sapling, sort the pell mell in the personal room, restore order from the short term disorder in the household, attend the guest if any, serve the tea in the family group, walk the talk in the garden or the lane, have a refreshing nap, listen to some music, engage with the elderly for a discussion about the bygone yet significant events of human history. By all means, we would get sharp every day; upskill, update and upgrade.
Nowadays updation and upgradation is only about the softwares and not the human minds. They are rather stuck with the screen and are stagnated still. There has to be a check on the activities of children born in the era of ethernet and internet. This is essentially to be done by the parents or else we are heading towards being a wasteland of intellectual mediocrity, very soon. Mark the words about the foreseen.
Dr. Qudsia Gani, Head, Dept. of Physics, Govt. Degree College, Pattan Baramulla, J&K
