Scrolling as soon as you wake up, scrolling while traveling, scrolling while talking, scrolling in between office work, scrolling while eating, scrolling while sleeping, even while driving, scrolling cannot be stopped even if you want to, 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 us understand today's top news. Recently, a shocking news came to light that Meta allegedly hid such an important internal research which stated that Instagram and Facebook can harm the mental health of teenagers. Meta started a research project, it was named Project Mercury. In this test, it was seen what happens when users deactivate their Facebook and Instagram for a month. After just one week, the participants reported that they are feeling less depressed, they are having anxiety, they are feeling less lonely and they have also reduced comparing themselves with others . But Meta did not even publish 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 and a meta-analysis was given. Because of this, neither the parents were convinced nor were the schools and Meta sued. Science has 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? Break from books, you turn the page, a chapter ends, there is a break and there is an automatic break, you are studying, there is logic, now as soon as you go on social media or go from this platform, you just have to scroll your thumb, the celebrity is designed in such a way that even if you stop, it prompts you. The second image prompt comes and then what happens is that if I have been following this behavior for so many years, then all those pathways of my brain have been activated, which consider this behavior as a habit and consider this behavior as normal behavior. The World Health Organization studied data from four countries and found that 11 percent of children were found to have addictive symptoms related to social media, and their mental and social well-being was also not as good as 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 self-esteem, anxiety, and depression are related to each other. I had a client who was going to high school and her parents were getting divorced, so complaints started coming from the school that she was not getting good marks. She is not even paying attention in school, is lost all the time and has stopped playing with friends, so this child is busy with the mobile phone the whole day. When we mapped out how many hours were being spent on the mobile phone, it was 10 to 12 hours and then when she came to therapy, I asked her how she was feeling. I don't know . Your parents are getting separated. How are you feeling? I don't care. I do not know. The answer to everything was that I don't know, what I feel, I don't know what. This happening has become emotional in a way. What will happen if a person cannot understand his own emotions? Emotional processing is not happening. I gave all the processing time to the phone. Sense of lost Confused, restless I don't know how to make sense of life. What is happening, what is existence, exactly no, your chances are not that complete hundred percent. It takes away what it means. Actually what I see is twenty twenty years old asking questions meaning life what do you have to do things? Are you living with great anxiety? Will you come when you relax. Because of this, people complain a lot about stress and burnout because you did not relax. And most of all, this is the most common complaint today. I can't sleep. I fall asleep very late. I lie on the bed for two or 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 has decreased, but many people say that they fall asleep while looking at the phone. It definitely comes. They crash. Ca n't relax. He is told to crash and light. You feel like you are wasting money. Your mind is analyzing what was in his photo, what is happening in his life. Hey, where did you go in your career? Where am I? It is invisible. There is a lot of constant comparison going on. Constant analysis is underway. So even when you go to sleep in such a condition, you are not relaxed, right? You are mentally relaxed, right? The body should be relaxed. Well, in our time it was only about TV. Sitting 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 such features in the TV which were different from the mobile phone. A movie would run for one hour, two hours, three hours. It was not that this theme based engagement was going on. This did not happen. Did socializing also happen with the TV on? What study TV? What did it happen with? No. The TV was fragmenting your attention. No. TV had an impact on academic performance. Right. Because children who watched more TV did not study. Some effects were similar. But this is not the case very much. And what I just told you about self-reflection thinking, TV had no impact on it 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 a debate on whether it should be banned or not. How soon can a ban happen? How can you possibly fulfill the sleep that mobile phones or technology are providing you today in any other way? At present, along with implementing the ban, some questions also arise. As if bypassing age verification isn't very difficult, how will governments keep a check? Children somewhere in an attempt to bypass the ban. Do n't go to the dark web. Social media has become a medium to connect with the world and 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 stop scrolling under any circumstances. We can reduce it but we can understand ourselves. 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 . Now think about this. See you next week.