Tahseen Rashid :
From the 16th of June to 24th of July, I was in school vacation for Ramzan and Eid. It was holiday for many of the students like me and most of us have had nothing to do. We, the younger generation, at first, thought of the holidas as a relief, but after a few days there was nothing left to do. Nothing left to save us from the pain of boredom.
TV has been watched for hundreds of hours over the course of the past month or so, video games have been finished and kept aside, the stack of CDs and movies watched has overcome our own height, and the number of messages exchanged between people has reached an ultimate new high. Now, the parents have started scolding their children for these reasons and shoved books into their faces. Now, you don’t have to be a child specialist nor a psychiatrist to understand the fact that this doesn’t work in 99% cases.
Now, why do we do these things, you parents, may ask? It’s because we have no alternative. Truthfully speaking, I went to Abahani field today to play cricket, and while I was there my friend’s bag was stolen. Now one may say that my friend should have kept his bag carefully, but we went to the field to play cricket, not safeguard a bag; so it was natural to look away from the bag while we were playing. Now, when these things happen, as well as the burning of vehicles and the increased kidnapping of minors all over Dhaka, parents don’t want us to go out.
We, the residents of this country, have very few options for recreation besides those that I have already stated in the opening paragraph. We neither have community swimming pools; a playground, community library, recreation center nor a safe and clean park, and the maintenance of the very few things we have are at an all-time low.
Now, even if our options are limited, do we persist with this behaviour, which involves being glued to electronic screens all day as these blockades continue? No.
Although there are good things about the screen-life, such as children can learn many new, interesting facts about current affairs, science, history, etc. and talk to people, the disadvantages still seem to outweigh the advantages. For example, a long-term study conducted by the Millennium Cohort Study published in 2013, found that children who watched more than 3 hours of television, videos, or DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and relationship problems by age 7 than children who did not. Furthermore, an Iowa State University study found that students who stare at a screen for more than two hours per day are twice as likely to be diagnosed with attention problems, which is bloodcurdling, when you consider that the average amount of time a child spends watching television and playing video games is 4.26 hours a day.
To make matters worse, the shows the youngsters (2-12 years old) are watching today are not even of the same quality even today’s teenagers had grown up on; especially with Disney being banned in our country and Cartoon Network, having turned Hindi. And unless, we want the next generation to speak Hindi instead of Bangla, this will have to change.
The days of Chowder, Kim Possible, Pokemonand even Phineas and Ferbare long gone, and what remains are the Cartoon Network Hindi shows of Haddi Mera Buddy and the Nickelodeon Hindi-dubbed versions of Ninja Hatori and Power Rangers. Our numerous Bengali channels also seem to lack educational and recreational shows for children; and whatever they do have (if there are any shows except for the repeated bad-influencing episodes of Doraemon) are unattractive.
So what should we, children, do? Well we need a balance of both, I guess; so we have to work hard and play hard? But to play hard we need fields. Now, that’s where the government comes in. As priority, they should start making a few more playing fields, indoor games and recreational centers (unmaintained, insecure parks don’t count), swimming pools, and other secured activity centers, where the common children can go to, to just relax, such as a community library, movie hall, and playground.
From the 16th of June to 24th of July, I was in school vacation for Ramzan and Eid. It was holiday for many of the students like me and most of us have had nothing to do. We, the younger generation, at first, thought of the holidas as a relief, but after a few days there was nothing left to do. Nothing left to save us from the pain of boredom.
TV has been watched for hundreds of hours over the course of the past month or so, video games have been finished and kept aside, the stack of CDs and movies watched has overcome our own height, and the number of messages exchanged between people has reached an ultimate new high. Now, the parents have started scolding their children for these reasons and shoved books into their faces. Now, you don’t have to be a child specialist nor a psychiatrist to understand the fact that this doesn’t work in 99% cases.
Now, why do we do these things, you parents, may ask? It’s because we have no alternative. Truthfully speaking, I went to Abahani field today to play cricket, and while I was there my friend’s bag was stolen. Now one may say that my friend should have kept his bag carefully, but we went to the field to play cricket, not safeguard a bag; so it was natural to look away from the bag while we were playing. Now, when these things happen, as well as the burning of vehicles and the increased kidnapping of minors all over Dhaka, parents don’t want us to go out.
We, the residents of this country, have very few options for recreation besides those that I have already stated in the opening paragraph. We neither have community swimming pools; a playground, community library, recreation center nor a safe and clean park, and the maintenance of the very few things we have are at an all-time low.
Now, even if our options are limited, do we persist with this behaviour, which involves being glued to electronic screens all day as these blockades continue? No.
Although there are good things about the screen-life, such as children can learn many new, interesting facts about current affairs, science, history, etc. and talk to people, the disadvantages still seem to outweigh the advantages. For example, a long-term study conducted by the Millennium Cohort Study published in 2013, found that children who watched more than 3 hours of television, videos, or DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and relationship problems by age 7 than children who did not. Furthermore, an Iowa State University study found that students who stare at a screen for more than two hours per day are twice as likely to be diagnosed with attention problems, which is bloodcurdling, when you consider that the average amount of time a child spends watching television and playing video games is 4.26 hours a day.
To make matters worse, the shows the youngsters (2-12 years old) are watching today are not even of the same quality even today’s teenagers had grown up on; especially with Disney being banned in our country and Cartoon Network, having turned Hindi. And unless, we want the next generation to speak Hindi instead of Bangla, this will have to change.
The days of Chowder, Kim Possible, Pokemonand even Phineas and Ferbare long gone, and what remains are the Cartoon Network Hindi shows of Haddi Mera Buddy and the Nickelodeon Hindi-dubbed versions of Ninja Hatori and Power Rangers. Our numerous Bengali channels also seem to lack educational and recreational shows for children; and whatever they do have (if there are any shows except for the repeated bad-influencing episodes of Doraemon) are unattractive.
So what should we, children, do? Well we need a balance of both, I guess; so we have to work hard and play hard? But to play hard we need fields. Now, that’s where the government comes in. As priority, they should start making a few more playing fields, indoor games and recreational centers (unmaintained, insecure parks don’t count), swimming pools, and other secured activity centers, where the common children can go to, to just relax, such as a community library, movie hall, and playground.
(Tahseen Rashid is a student of Sunbeams School, Dhaka)
