You enter a fancy café, place an order, get seated and look forward to catching up with your friends whom you are meeting after quite some time. Instead, you find them already fumbling for their gadgets in their bags and pockets. In no time, their eyes are glued to their smartphone screens, fingers typing and tapping away fast, pictures being taken of everything around, from the table napkin to the ‘cute’ toothpick stand on the table. Pictures ready to be put up on Instagram, the evening is all set for a Tweet party, the Facebook ‘check-in’ already in place.
This is not another piece on table manners or one on social media bashing. Times have changed and so has everybody’s need to remain connected. Information and Communication Technology has changed the way we used to communicate in the past. And there is no looking back.
The use of high-tech gadgets, like all over the world, is on a rise in Pakistan. With an increasing percentage of youth who can afford to buy, the marketers gear up their selling ideas, making them far more attractive.
What follows is a bombardment of marketing gimmicks to allure — bringing into debate not only the age-old dilemma of advertising ethics, but also blurring the difference of needs and wants in the youth. The unstoppable desire to buy leads to an obsession to have it. Social experts argue teens nowadays are the No. 1 population targeted because they are the consumers of the future. It’s analogous to the stock market: teens are treated as investments that yield higher returns as time continues.
This obsession, many argue, leads to a vicious cycle of social and economic imbalance, especially on the impressionable minds.
Samreen Raheel, a senior Cambridge teacher at one of the elite schools of Karachi, expressed her concerns on the way children are developing an addiction for every new trend — be it technology, clothing, food or smoking. “The speed with which our youth today get addicted to their surrounding trends/practices is understandable, but by no means acceptable. The more luxury they indulge in, the more they are in a hurry to rush out of it, only to get into something more exciting,” Raheel laments.
Adil Rao, an engineer by profession and father of two teenage sons says, “Blaming youth as the only excessive users of computer games, social media, sheesha or gutka is not fair. A large percentage of our general population generally spends time and resources on all these activities. It has become more of a social trend and with time has become an acceptable social norm.
However, in many cases, those who can’t afford to buy, steal.”
The results are evident. If we look around today, we find young people living in several such dilemmas. These confusions tend to take over several aspects of their lives and they fall easy prey to the world of gimmicks and glamour and often fail to maintain balance in their lives.
What else can explain the growing number of youngsters around us, some as young as 12, obsessed with playing nonstop with their gadgets and video games, never ending smoking and sheesha sessions, long queues at the pan shops, the urge to chat online 24/7 and what not.
Why is it that our youth happily spends precious hours in these activities? Irrespective of the social backgrounds they come from, many youngsters today seem to share the same passion when it comes to over indulgence. And almost all of them share the same outcomes — imbalance in their social and academic lives.
Sameena Kanwal, a clinical psychologist and a practicing counselor, explains, “Growing up in today’s world, we are subject to an incredible amount of social conditioning, starting from the day we are born, then by school, by the government, by the media, by our boss. As we grow, several images are created of how we should live, of what is beautiful and socially acceptable. With time, as we are subjected to this social conditioning, we tend to not build a strong sense of identity. We do not know what we really want. And hence we give in to what attracts us most, without thinking about its benefits and disadvantages.”
So is it the social pressure that compels young minds to over indulge in these activities? What is it that makes them crave and keeps them satisfied even after hours of indulging in their favourite sport.
Fourteen-year-old Hamza, student of grade IX, is known as the ‘social guy’ in his circle of friends. “I like to remain connected with all my friends all the time and I am happy Facebook helps me do that. It is great excitement to keep a track of their birthdays, likes and dislikes. It takes a lot of my time to post updates, but it is all a click away during classes, at lunch break and at tuitions. My phone is my best friend!” Hamza excitedly confides.
Ali Noor, a 22-year old engineering student, started smoking when he was 15. Ali says smoking became a regular part of his formative years out of curiosity. “I never realised how ‘cool’ and brave smoking made me feel in front of my friends. Their encouragement boosted my ego and I let go the fear of it being injurious to health. With time I gave in to all social pressures around me and was content puffing it away with my cigarettes.”
These leisurely activities which start as occasional become an obsession with time and almost always end up as an addiction for people in general and the youth in particular. Youngsters most often fail to realise the importance of spending time and resources wisely due to their young and impressionable minds, Often they have to pay a heavy price in the form of their health, study hours, physical activities and balanced social life.
While the subject is a never ending debate, let us not forget that balance is the art of living, and in spite being the most crucial one to sustain most of the times, is the only way forward for promoting peace and tranquillity.