Excessive internet usage causing physical, psychological issues for kids

Islamabad : Health experts have warned that excessive use of smart gadgets not only affect eyesight but also lead towards a number of other issues such as hindering kids brain growth, causing memory loss weakening their ability to take decision.

Talking to this agency on Friday they also said that excessive internet usage was causing hazardous mental, physical and psychological issues for teenagers.

Dr Sadia, a senior psychiatrist told this agency that people did not have proper knowledge about the negative impacts of the fast growing modern trend of watching Youtube and other social websites.

“People have become habitual to take help from numerous websites. There is no more mental exercise of finding facts and discussion or going through books and newspapers. This is alarming,” she said.

“It is true that the internet has made the world a global room and brought the information on people’s fingertips but unfortunately it has also caused many long-lasting health and moral issues,” she maintained. She said that disproportionate screen time was causing abnormalities in teenagers as it was harming their nervous system.

“Children are losing moral values and becoming impatient, unsocial and lazy,” she said. Dr Shoaib, a child specialist said that internet surfing was leading to insomnia, laziness and eating disorders.

“It is also causing obesity, which further leads to diabetes and depression at a very tender age. I have personally observed the cases where juveniles tried to attempt suicide and gone in deep depression and anxiety after being terrorized on internet,” he added.

Ms Hina, a house wife and mother of three young kids said internet addiction was depicting the worst picture of modern way of life. “My eldest daughter is in grade 6th and she completes all her assignments either by sitting in front of computer or by using her father’s smartphone. This perplexes me as I have to sit beside her till she finishes her assignments,” she added.

But Hina’s daughter, Aaliya, said, “It had become compulsion for the students to use internet as their assignments were quite complicated and could only be completed with the help of internet.”

Ms Maimoona, who runs her own English medium school, agreed that excessive internet usage was harmful as her pupils had started to lose grades and their performance was going down in exams.

“Internet is useful in many ways but we must have to keep a vigilant check on our kids’ activities and limit their screen time to keep them hale and hearty,” she opined.

“After noticing the decline of progress in our pupils we have cut down their screen time to only science and computer subjects and arranged a magnificent library for languages, creative writing skills and history,” she said while explaining as how her school was coping with the issue. She underlined the need for introducing novel ideas for bringing the students closer to books and practical research.