Govt school teachers in Siddipet help children go for digital detox

Gone are the days when summer vacations meant children playing under mango trees, by temple ponds, or in local playgrounds. Today, most children spend their holidays glued to mobile phones or tablets, engrossed in online games, YouTube videos, or scrolling through Instagram reels.

Siddipet: Ever since the advent of smartphones, mobile addiction among children has turned into a worrying aspect for most parents.

From days when summer vacations saw children playing under mango trees, near temple ponds and in the local playgrounds, most children these days spend time staring into their mobile phones or tablets, playing online games or watching YouTube games and watching Instagram reels. And as schools reopen too, many still are not able to focus on their books with the mobile phone being a major distraction.

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This is when government primary school teachers of Chandkhan Maktha in Wargal mandal decided to organise a 21-day digital detox programme for 46 students and other school kids in their village. The teachers, Varala Prasanth Kumar and C Suman designed the programme after noticing many of their students addicted to smartphones.

For 21 days, the two teachers engaged the children in various activities, games and fun events, which were what children used to be engaged with before smartphones and internet took over the day to day lives.

Prasanth Kumar said the need for digital detox stuck them during interactions with the students on the last working day of school in April. Asked what they would do in vacation, most students said they would do Reels and Shorts. “We were shocked as these were students below 11 years old,” he says.

Then, Prasanth and Suman met the parents and explained how they intend to engage the children in physical activities and restrict the usage of mobile phones, and the parents immediately agreed to it. Interestingly, even some parents and students from other classes also joined their detox concept.

As part of the detox, the students were formed into groups and engaged with games and other fun activities. Suman says they realised that many students were not focussing on studies in classrooms due to excessive use of mobile phones. “Increased physical activity will certainly enhance their focus levels and improve their performance in studies as well,” the teacher says.

The 21-day programme Digital Detox:
Do’s:

– Play after school hours
– Read books

– Learn extracurricular activities
– Assist parents at home

– Visit agriculture fields to educate agriculture practices
– Small gifts when they achieve targets

– Visit nearby tourist places and spend time there
– Make grandparents spend time with kids

Don’ts

– Parents must avoid using mobile phones while their kids are reading
– Avoid excessive pampering

– Avoid punishing them for their wrong doings, instead educate them
Digital detox activities:
– Free hand exercises, monkey rolls, jumping boxes, skipping

– Surya Namaskar, cool down exercises, wall pushups, hopping exercises
– Hula hoop exercises, backward running, breathing exercises, stick balancing exercises

– Kangaroo jumping, butterfly exercises, elephant walk, jumping the hoop etc
– Brain exercises, toe touch exercises, breathing exercises and so on