Well, the first thing that needs addressing …. !

How fair is it to criticize the food that we are eating ? Or say a car that we are driving ?

How fair is it to criticize screens through screens ? 😉

Funny , I agree.

Ironical , I agree. but

Unfair ? I disagree.

The same logic has been put almost as a gun against the ‘ educated’ who criticize education system. Well, there is a very thin line between fair and unfair and I am not taking the responsibility to draw that line.

Screens, are being criticized left, right and center. Even those reel and series addicts would in principle agree to the criticism. It’s like how sitting in a pub with a friend of mine, we used to spend hours criticizing alcohol and smoking, with a cigarette in one hand and beer in another. Again, fair ? not fair ?

We can criticize the same thing for different reasons ,and perhaps what we criticize for makes it fair or unfair not just the criticism per se.

I remember during the farmer’s protest sometime back, a lot of my friends were expecting me to support the protest or were just curious to what I think of the protest, whose side am I? ! While I was on farmer’s side, I did not stood for protest, because they were fighting a war, in which according to me , winning was no good than losing. What the farmers were demanding was like asking for a good meal while a Tsunami is impending. Even if government gave them the meal, the tsunami that awaits will render everything meaningless.

I was with them in spirit but not with them in cause. I wonder why farmers do not protest equally strong knowing that Punjab is a cancer capital now ? I wonder why we don’t protest when recently a report found 10 carcinogens in bloods of farmers of Telangana , way beyond permissible limit ? I wonder why farmers don’t protest for the dying soil , polluted rivers and disappearing biodiversity ? – with the same intensity as we did against the farmers act of Indian government !

Fuh, sorry the farmer side of me got activated. Back to the subject – screens.

The same logic holds true for screens. While we are fighting screens, passing sanctions on screen time, creating apps to monitor usage and then going to screen detox camps – the core damages of screens are not discussed, understood or talked about. Of course, screens damage the eye-sights, but so does books. Of course , screens reduce attention span, so does the period system in schools. We are not fighting screen for the deeper damages its causing.

One such damage I would like to bring to your notice is “ theft of time” . Obvious , right ?! You must be little disappointed perhaps for all this build up just to arrive at such an obvious revelation. Of course, screen time , takes away our time. What’s the news here ?

Well the news is in – the gravity or seriousness of the issue. Loss of time inflicts a deeper damage than meets the eyes. If we lose time ,we lose everything.

It requires time to fall in love, to look into the eyes of your beloved, to hold hands of your children or dying parents. – Pressed for time, we will lose opportunity for all of it.

It requires time to look at the 6 year old walking barefoot at the traffic light selling newspapers and feel something about it. – We become cold when time is made to move fast.

It requires time to see our own feelings, to understand our own wrong doing and right doings ! – We become insensitive and robot like, in shortage of time.

It requires time to allow oneself to feel the pain and the joy – that leads to changes, greatest inventions and enlightenment of human beings ! – We truly cease to be human when time is snatched away from us.

Already the modern life is so fast and we are all busy. Add to it – screens, we have the recipe of disaster,

We all know we are losing time with screens. What we are missing is just the realization that if we loose time, we are loosing everything with it. A lot is already lost, infact. A little is left , which can be saved.

Do we have time for it ?