Due to the pandemic, all education our children now receive is from their electronic gadgets. As a result, their daily usage of phones and laptops has augmented exponentially. Since they have to rely on their gadgets for attending classes, doing homework, presentations, submissions, etc, their screen time has inevitably skyrocketed. A direct consequence of this increased usage is the weakened eyesight being witnessed in children of all ages in the present day. Since children cannot even go outside and play in the pastimes, they resort to their phones and laptops for playing games and entertaining themselves. This has further aggravated the problem as such extreme usage makes people lazy, uninterested and tired all the time.

The need of the hour is to help our kids in managing their screen time and limiting it so that they can try doing different things in their free time. As adults, we should strive to be role models for our children and not spend every spare minute on our phones so that our children don’t do it either. It is also necessary that we set passwords on phones and other gadgets to ensure that our children do not have unrestricted access to them at all times of the day. Since we’re trying to limit their screen time, it is crucial that our children understand why they cannot be on their gadgets continuously and try to exercise self-control. By explaining how detrimental extreme use of gadgets can be to our health and lifestyle, we can help our children to see the reason why they need to look for fun activities other than the ones in their gadgets.

We can help our children in learning how to manage screen time by deciding the number of hours they’re allowed to spend on their gadgets every day excluding the time spent on school work. In this way, we can also make our children learn how to be responsible and careful about how they spend their time. 

Another way through which we can reduce the screen time of our children is by declaring few spaces in our houses as ‘technology-free zones’. In these zones, the use of any gadget will be strictly prohibited. This will allow our children to spend more time interacting with their families and learning new things. It will also give them a sense of not being surrounded by electronic gadgets all the time and will allow them to bond and connect with their family members better. Kitchens and dining rooms are examples of spaces that can be reserved as technology-free zones.

In order to motivate our children to look away from their gadgets, it’s necessary that we attract them towards other pastime activities that are fun and enriching. The only permanent way through which we can ensure that our children don’t become obsessed with their phones and laptops is by making them interested in activities like reading, cooking, drawing, painting, writing, etc, and encouraging them to pick up new hobbies.

In today’s hyper-connected world, it’s impractical for anyone to stop making use of gadgets at all. However, this does not mean that we cannot reduce our screen time. By making sure that our children learn how to manage their screen time from an early age, we can ensure that our children do not become addicted to their gadgets and can be attracted by activities other than ones that involve the use of their phones and laptops.