Rising device addiction
Productivity of the informal workforce is lowered
A21-year-old
male nurse, hired to care for an 81-year-old man suffering from severe
dementia, repeatedly ignored pleas from the patient’s wife to help set her
husband bed. The nurse was busy on his device, having brought two smartphones
to work that day — each with sufficient charge to last his eight-hour shift.
Having watched this happen repeatedly, that evening the woman, herself 75 years
old and ailing, complained to the nurse’s employer. He was fired.
As India’s
policymakers and telecom providers push ultra-cheap internet access — even
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Houston mega rally with US President Donald
Trump mentioned the low price for 1 GB of data — there’s a dark side to device
addiction that is rarely addressed. The cancer has spread from young children
to college students; and now, to the entire workforce, including millions in
the informal economy.
India
produces a much lesser output per workday than it used to even a decade ago, at
a time when the country should in fact be doing the opposite.
Addiction to
devices is more dangerous than addiction to substances — alcohol, drugs or
smoking — because device addicts start out much younger. Parents are complicit
in this act, knowing that a smartphone can distract (and calm) a wailing child
like no babysitter. After a year with a smartphone, the child wants nothing
else.
Children
like devices because they can control the environment — it is a world very
different from reality. In a video game, if a character is hurt or killed,
quitting and restarting brings it back to life. If the level gets too
difficult, it is easy to dial it back a notch to fit within the player’s
abilities. Any learning that occurs is restricted to what the game developer
had in mind. The ability to critically think is further removed as children
swipe and pinch their screens. These are hardly life skills young people should
be learning.
Today’s
workers are losing the ability to talk, reason, listen or negotiate with other
humans — the pillar skills that make a modern society function. When on their
devices, they are in a state of bliss. The device never complains. It is never
tired. It doesn’t misunderstand or get upset. It doesn’t show emotion or
empathy, so there are no arguments or disputes. In such a comfortable zone,
users can get whatever they want by commanding a device that is completely at
their beck and call.
When devices
are forcibly taken away from this environment — such as in an office meeting —
addicts experience first-hand the difficulties of interacting with humans. This
becomes uncomfortable, because in all real communication, the principle of give
and take is inherent. Device addicts are not used to such interactions, and so
they long to return to the virtual world.
This is a
serious problem globally. A few years ago, the Washington Post reported
that in South Korea — one of the best-wired countries — students diagnosed with
Internet and device addiction are sent to government treatment centres. In
China, militaristic government “boot camps” have treated millions of children.
Japan, too, has trialled an Internet “fasting camp” for young people.
Device
addiction in India’s middle and upper-class families has been a problem for
years now. But today, the addiction has spread to lower class workers in the
informal and gig economy, which by some accounts supports 80 per cent of the
domestic GDP.
The
toothpaste is already out of the tube. It’s going to be awfully hard to put it
back.
Source | Business Line | 22nd November 2019
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Mobile @ 9665911593
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