A few years back, just after the lockdown, when everything started to seem normal, I went to see a not-so-close friend.
I greeted everyone in her family, including her in-laws, and husband. I saw her child, probably five years old, watching a video on mobile, and we went to a little more private place where we could talk freely, gossip about common friends, who we were in touch with, etc. I stayed there for maybe an hour and a half and then went into the living room where everyone was watching TV. I greeted her In-laws and Said bye to her son, who was still on his mobile. He did not reply to me as it was normal for a child not to react specifically if he was concentrating on his mobile. I felt a little agitated to see how freely the adults were not controlling the screen time of that child. They were educated, so-called urbanized family, living in a metro city. I wanted to tell her that it's not good for her child to spend so much time in front of a digital screen especially scrolling but I hesitated to say something as she was not a close friend. I was not sure how she would take it, especially when I could not tell her more about it scientifically. I only knew that it's not healthy for a person's brain to be so much on the screen and scrolling.
Fast-forward to a few years later, in 2024, when I started my second master's in Psychological counselling and started to study topics like Stress, trauma, thinking processes, and emotions. However, I was still not studying the brain and its function or how the outer environment affects it or in other words the science behind it.
The irony is that I saw an ad while scrolling through Instagram about a small course on Neurology. The course was conducted by Dr. Siddharth Warrier, a neurologist and influencer himself. This course gave me a whole new perspective on human psychology.
We as human beings, deal with situations in two types of mindsets. One where we think rationally. Take our time before reacting. Most of the time this phenomenon happens when our brain is in relaxing mode. This is called the Parasympathetic state. It can also rationalize you and that comes from the brain part called “Pre Frontal Cortex” (PFC) On the other hand, when you feel stressed or anxious, we also call it “fight, flight or freeze” mode you react based on your emotions, mostly it ends up with you doing something or saying something that you regret later. This is called being in a Sympathetic state. That comes from the part called the “Amygdala” which is a part of the limbic system of the brain. A balance of both is required to deal with situations in one’s life.
A fight or an argument with someone, beating up a child, driving carelessly, drinking too much, spending money carelessly, eating without control, or scrolling up on your mobile etc. comes from when you react based on your emotions & irrational mind.
The scariest of all these situations is scrolling on your mobile. It just not only consumes your time endlessly but also makes your brain stressed. Your brain then does not be in a stress-free state. You think you are giving yourself a break and going through your mobile will give you a time out from your work but unfortunately, exactly the opposite happens. Your brain is constantly stressed and anxious which makes it always in threatening mode and to recover to the same level of concentration It takes 20 – 25 minutes. The terrifying truth is that your brain can and no surprise if already have gone into chronic stress because of the lifestyle you lead. Which also means that you cannot work to your full potential.
Imagine what it will do to you and especially to your child. Remember when your child throws a tantrum at you to watch mobile and you are helpless, thinking what to do and at that moment you just give a tight slap….. So, the next time when you complain about your daughter or son is not good at studies or not able to concentrate, remember how many times you have screwed up with your child's brain – no matter how unintentional it was.
Now, What to be done –
1. Read more books – make a habit of reading, especially before sleeping, instead of watching a video.
2. Disable the notifications on your mobile as much as you can.
3. Disable notifications of any kind on your smartwatch. Imagine having an irritating companion for your brain to poke constantly whenever and wherever it wants to and you do not have a choice. You have to live with it for the rest of your life until you throw it away from your wrist.
4. Meditate – The best meditation technique is Vipassana. Why? I will write about it in my next article.
5. Throw away your TV (There is a reason why it's called a Mad box).
6. Less time digitally.
7. Remove OTT from your mobile, YouTube is enough to screw up your brain which btw you cannot delete from your mobile.
8. Say “NO” to every impulsive thing you do. You want to buy a dress online, you want to eat a midnight snack, you want to have a drink today, or just want to see your Instagram/ Facebook profile to see how many likes you have. Say no first even if you do the same thing after two minutes.
9. And Finally “don’t give your mobile” to your kids for more than an hour. An hour also exceeds the time limit but I don’t want to go extreme which you won't be able to do. Just remember he/ she already has to use a laptop/ mobile for their school work.
10. Zero exposure to “Chat GPT” types of applications.
