Scrolling as soon as I wake up, scrolling while traveling, scrolling while talking , scrolling while working at the office , scrolling while eating, scrolling while sleeping. Even scrolling while driving. I ca n't stop even if I want to, right? But why? Why are we unable to get out of the habit of phone scrolling ? What effect is this having on our minds, especially on the minds of children? Let's understand today's topic in news. Recently a shocking news came out. Meta allegedly concealed important internal research that suggested Instagram and Facebook could harm teenagers' mental health. Meta started a research project. It was named Project Mercury. This test looked at what happens when users deactivate their Facebook and Instagram accounts for a month. After just one week, participants reported feeling less depressed. They are having less anxiety. They are feeling less lonely and have also reduced comparing themselves with others. But Meta never published the results of this study. On the contrary, according to the American court, this project was cancelled. The reason given for cancellation was that there was some irregularity in the study. But due to this advice given by Meta, neither the parents were convinced nor were the schools and Meta sued. Science has also proven that using social media can be harmful for children. We met Delhi- based psychologist Swati Chitnis who explained why we are unable to distance ourselves from our phones and what impact it has on us. How did you take a break from books? A break from the books, you turned the page. A chapter is over. One brake is an automatic brake. You are studying, it is the same logic. As soon as you go on social media or any other addictive platform, all you have to do is scroll with your thumb. And it is designed in such a way that even if you stop, it helps you. The second image or reel appears. Then what happens is that if I have been behaving like this for so many years, then all those pathways of my brain have become activated which consider this behaviour as a habit and consider this behaviour as normal behaviour. The World Health Organization studied data from 44 countries and found that 11 percent of children had addictive symptoms related to social media. The mental and social well-being of those children was also not good compared to others. According to WHO, this can affect the development of children in the long term. In fact, several studies have found that social media use and low self- esteem, anxiety, and depression are related to each other. Like I once had a client, a young client going to high school whose parents were getting divorced. Hmm. So complaints started coming from the school that marks were not being given. I am not paying attention in school, I am lost all the time and have stopped playing with friends. So when we mapped how many hours this child is using the mobile phone the whole day ? So there was 10 to 12 hours of time on the mobile phone. And then when he came to therapy, I asked him how he was feeling. How are you feeling? I don't know. Your parents are getting separated. How are you feeling? I don't care. I don't know. The answer to everything was, I don't know what I feel. I don't know what is happening. In a way, emotional numbering has happened. What will happen if a person cannot understand his own emotions ? Emotional processing is not happening. Because I gave all the time for emotional processing to the phone. Sense of being lost Confused Restless I don't know how to make sense of this life What is happening with me What is happening existential crisis Exactly no, there are no chances of that 100% It takes me there What does it mean And actually what I see in 20 means 18 19 20 years old Asking question what is the meaning of this life What am I doing here Why do I even have to do these things. You are living with a low great anxiety. When will you come? When will you relax? Because of this, people complain a lot about stress and burnout. Because you did not relax. And the most common complaint these days is that I can't sleep. I fall asleep very late. I lie on the bed for two-three hours , but I cannot sleep. I feel sleepy in the morning, then it is time to wake up and even when I do fall asleep, I have very strange dreams. The quality of sleep decreased. But many people say that they fall asleep while looking at their phones. It definitely comes. They crash. He is not relaxing. He is told that you crash now. Right? You feel like you are consuming passively. Your mind is analyzing what was in his photo? What is happening in his life ? Hey, where did he go in his career? Where am I? This is all invisible, so this constant comparison is going on. Constant analysis is underway. So even when you went to sleep in such a state, did you not feel relaxed ? So neither are you mentally relaxed nor are you physically relaxed? Well, in our time it was only about TV. He sits in front of the TV all the time. So the impact of TV and phone is the same. When you used to watch TV, there were many features in the TV which were different from mobile phones. A movie would run for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours. Right? It wasn't like this 30 seconds of thumb based engagement is going on. This did not happen. Right? Did socializing also happen with the TV on ? Was studying done with the TV on? No. Was TV fragmenting your attention ? No. TV had an impact on academic performance. Right? Because if the kids who watched a lot of TV weren't studying. Some impacts were similar. But it is not so. It is very different. And what I just told you about self- reference thinking, that pay TV had no impact in this way. Now in such a situation the same question arises again that should social media be banned for children? Many countries including Australia have taken the initiative in this regard. But India is not included in this list yet. There should be no debate on whether it should be banned or not. How soon can a ban happen ? How can this happen? How can you fulfill the needs that mobile phones or technology are providing you today in any other way ? At present, along with implementing the ban, some questions also arise. For example, it is not very difficult to bypass age verification. So how will governments keep checks? In an attempt to bypass the ban, children may turn to the dark web. Social media has become a medium to connect with the world, to understand the world, to consume news. So how will governments ensure that children do not lag behind in digital skill development? However, it is clear that social media companies do not want us to deactivate our accounts or reduce scrolling under any circumstances. But we can understand ourselves, right? You can replace your scrolling habit with other habits. We can ask ourselves which real-life problem or emotion we are using social media to avoid. You think about this. See you next week.