It has been not so long ago that if you looked on the streets at evening time, you saw kids playing gully cricket or chatting up with what happened in the recent episode of shaktimaan or in their favourite cartoon. That was the time when kids learnt from the books or their elders or their peers in the society. They learnt through fat jokes, jibes, nicknames, etc. acts which weren’t glorified by or frowned upon but were simply done. There were no boundations of appearing to be very sophisticated among your friends and no need to show off what food you’re having, where you’re having and with whom you’re having.
But that all changed since the mid 2000’s, since the advent of the internet in the lives of the normal people. They were now exposed to the content that previously had been enabled only when you looked for them and not without atleast one person knowing about it. The lives changed. The most affected were the millennials who were at an age that marks a high curiosity rate on the learning curve. The millennials got introduced to the internet that connected them to the world, things like the social media such as Orkut, Facebook, etc. As they learned and grew, something terrible started happening.
They were being hooked to the internet, the attraction of having to express yourself to a person who is not only willing to listen to their silly notions but also shared them was too much to handle. They fell head over heels in love with the social media. Was this a good thing? I think not but that is still up for debate. Then something spectacular happened! The internet or the social media entered a new era where the governments realised how the misuse of internet can happen and how the internet is more prone to affecting the minds of the young population which are very impressionable. So they decided to restrict or regulate the content that was coming up on the internet. They started laying down cyber security laws as the use of computers and internet based OS and softwares found application in the government sector. As this progressed, internet usage boomed from dial up networks to cyber cafe’s to using internet services offered by Telecom companies to broadband connection, the behaviour of the millennials changed at an exponential rate.
But the impact this change had was not as pretty as it was appearing to be. While the cyber cafes were booming across the country, the youngsters were becoming more prone to problems and behavioural patters that were unheard of at that time in an average middle class household. This was a blow to the “Free internet/Liberal” brigade. The 'Generation X' parents were completely unequipped and unaware to even understand the issue, let alone address it or understand the root cause of this behaviour of their dependents. At that point of time, if you were to ask a parent who were undergoing this crisis that what was the most harrowing experience they have experienced in their lives, they will would have recounted the same without a second thought. Their kids, roughly between the age of 14-23 were lying, stealing and sneaking away to get a taste of the internet and social media. It became the new drug and the kids started giving up on books, comics and sports just to see that buffering sign on the screen which led to the message that xyz has become their new friend. This in turn led the way to online dating, pornography, cyber crimes, online stalking, obsession and whatnot. The constant exposure to
