ISLAMABAD: Social media has although transformed the lives of people through providing an easy way of communication and interaction but its excessive use is alarmingly breaking down family interactions, reducing physical and outdoor activities.
The use of social media networks by majority of the users, especially teenagers, for sharing every action, photos, comments and other posts for the sake of entertainment is not contributing to their cognitive development but distracting them from their studies, family interaction and other healthy activities.
Shazia Ahmad, a mother of three children, said that social media networks have become a trouble for all of them. “Whenever my husband comes home after spending eight to nine hours in office, he starts using Facebook instead of interacting with the kids and other family members,” she said.
“My elder son is also addicted to social media networks and all the time he keeps on posting `selfies’ in different poses and other activities. I am worried this addiction will badly impact his studies as well as his personality,” she said.
“Addiction of social media is the reason of my quarrels with my husband. All of my friends are facing this dilemma,” said Amina Hassan, another women. “My husband and children remain busy on their cell phones whenever they are at home and I keep on watching their faces, trying to get their attention but to no avail. No body at the home has time to communicate with each other,” she said.
“When I cook food for my family and ask my husband to take care of children, he starts using Facebook while the children keep on weeping all the time. Even when we go for outing, he remains lost in Facebook and hardly participates in any activity. So I wish such networks close forever so we can have a happy life,” she observed.
“I have to repeat one thing for ten times and my husband busy in laughing on some Facebook post find it hard to answer to me. He does not realize the frustration caused to others due to his such response,” she said. Tahir Bhatti, who is a professor at a local college, said, “I wish my children to spend good time in reading books and physical activities instead of hanging with their friends on social media networks.”
However, he said that it was not possible as the social media networks were available to them at a meager cost. “I am a professor at a college but unable to restrain my children from using social media networks as it have become part of their daily routine. I think the parents are responsible to educate their children from the early stage to avoid excessive use of social media and concentrate on their studies and character building”, he added.