GenerationNowhere: India’s young are fighting an invisible epidemic, smartphone addiction
Arka Talk
4 min read
GenerationNowhere: India’s young are fighting an invisible epidemic, smartphone addiction
Prayagraj: Everything seemed to be going well for Shaurya Pratap Chauhan. Among the brightest in his class, he scored 90% in his 10th board examination, in 2014. Then, for no apparent reason, his grades began to fall. In the 12th boards, he scored 75%. In spite of coaching from a well-known centre in Rajasthan’s Kota, he failed to clear the Joint Entrance Examination, or secure admission to an Indian Institute of Technology. He then studied math at Allahabad University and barely managed to graduate, but says he can’t solve a single math question now.
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For years, Chauhan blamed a broken romantic relationship for his problems. Like many others, his parents blamed bad company, lack of focus, and the emotional problems young adults generally face. There was one thing no one considered: Chauhan’s most intimate, constant companion, his smartphone.
In the earlier story in its ‘Generation Nowhere’ series, ThePrint looked at the growing crisis of youth unemployment, the lack of opportunity for political or social agency, and the explosion in Internet usage. Smartphone addiction is one of the manifestations of this crisis.
Ever since 2019, a team led by Dr Rakesh Paswan and Dr Ishanyaraj of the National Mental Health Programme have been battling an epidemic that’s tearing apart the lives of many young Indians. At a centre in the Motilal Nehru Divisional Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district (formerly Allahabad), the doctors have set up a mobile de-addiction centre.
For some young people, it’s their only hope.
In the earlier story in its ‘Generation Nowhere’ series, ThePrint looked at the growing crisis of youth unemployment, the lack of opportunity for political or social agency, and the explosion in Internet usage. Smartphone addiction is one of the manifestations of this crisis.
Ever since 2019, a team led by Dr Rakesh Paswan and Dr Ishanyaraj of the National Mental Health Programme have been battling an epidemic that’s tearing apart the lives of many young Indians. At a centre in the Motilal Nehru Divisional Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district (formerly Allahabad), the doctors have set up a mobile de-addiction centre.
For some young people, it’s their only hope.
In the earlier story in its ‘Generation Nowhere’ series, ThePrint looked at the growing crisis of youth unemployment, the lack of opportunity for political or social agency, and the explosion in Internet usage. Smartphone addiction is one of the manifestations of this crisis.
Ever since 2019, a team led by Dr Rakesh Paswan and Dr Ishanyaraj of the National Mental Health Programme have been battling an epidemic that’s tearing apart the lives of many young Indians. At a centre in the Motilal Nehru Divisional Hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj district (formerly Allahabad), the doctors have set up a mobile de-addiction centre.
For some young people, it’s their only hope.
The story isn’t unusual. “In one case,” Dr Ishanyaraj says, “a parent came to us concerned about their sons, who were in the 11th and 12th standards. One of the boys had flatly refused to sit for his examinations. They became violent when the parents tried to take away their phones. That experience eventually led us to set up the smartphone de-addiction centre.”
Chauhan’s story isn’t exceptional. His friend Akash Jaiswal, from a rural background, dropped out of college because of his addiction to playing the video game, PUBG. “He said that he will look after his father’s grocery shop,” Chauhan recalls, “and get a correspondence degree.”
Sonu Kumar, 24-year-old student of Allahabad University, saw viewed his father’s WhatsApp status at midnight and immediately got a call from him. “Humko laga tha ki daatenge ki raat ke 12 baje bhi phone se chipke hue ho,” Kumar said, speaking of the far of getting scolded by his father. But he was surprised to see his father beaming with joy and telling him that he was the first person to have seen his latest WhatsApp status, a clear sign of the smartphone addiction having transcended age gaps.
It isn’t that young people are unaware of the dangers. Samarjeet Yadav, a 23-year-old preparing for the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) examination, has deleted all the social media apps from his phone.
“I would ask my mom for a cup of tea,” he says, “and then get distracted by my phone, jumping from one app to the other. Then, I would realise the tea had got cold, so I would ask her to warm it up for me. Then, the same thing would happen again, and again, and again.”
Satyam Shukla, another competitive exam aspirant, has stopped charging his phone, hoping it would reduce the usage time. Abhishek Kumar went a step ahead and recently broke his phone—fed up, he says, of endlessly Googling “how to get rid of mobile addiction.”
