Earlier, to use internet , which has now become the necessity of life, you had to visit a Cyber Cafe. You would travel a long distance to reach there and to avail internet facility, you needed to pay a good amount of money for the purpose. But nowadays Smartphones have brought internet at easy access to every young and old.
Due to prevailing law and order situations in the state till late nineties, because of unrest in the valley, the people of Jammu and Kashmir took the taste of mobile phone service very late as compared to other states of India. In Jammu and Kashmir , mobile phone service was launched in 2003, one and a half decade before. It was the then prime minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who made the first voice call to then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Syed as a note of inaugural phone call. With the start of cell phone service in Kashmir, I have witnessed those days, when brokers sold the SIM Cards in five thousand to six thousand rupees, which is nowadays given free of cast to a subscriber.
Though this service was launched very late in the state, but the number of moble phone users zoomed to sky levels immediately after it’s inception. According to a report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India of 2016, Jammu and Kashmir had crossed the mark of one crore mobile phone users by the end of October 2016, which may have gone too higher till now. However, with the beginning people mostly used their mobile phones only for voice calls and text messages.
With the passage of time, people started using pocket internet on their handsets. Initially pocket internet service was available in 2G then in 3G speed and now the people have access to use high speed 4G internet on their handsets.
As the Smartphone culture has abruptly spread among the people, with the result of this, most of the people have become addicted to internet now. In India, it is being said that two out of three mobile phone users are using mobile Internet and same may be the case with Jammu and Kashmir.
Doubtlessly mobile internet has touched unimaginable highlights in terms of accessibility to so many useful services and its unlimited advantages. Mobile voice calling and pocket internet both have brought people closer to each other across the world by the way of various modes of communication. But like the two inseparable sides of a same coin, to talk about the side of it’s demirits can not be ignored.
Since the data in the form of audio, vedio and text remains always available on the Smartphone , so people remain connected to pocket internet round the clock. Earlier, the term “facilities available at door steps” was frequently used for easy services. Now the Smartphone is not less than a “magic box”, which keeps every service available at your fingertips, hence it replaced the term “door steps” into “fingertips”. Be it banking, booking tickets , booking hotels, submitting online forms, online shopping, prepration for examination, communication by text, audio and vedio through social networking sites, access to electronic/social media, different games for children etc, every service is now available on a handy gadget, the Smartphone. Apart from that, there are other countless Android Applications which can be used by Smartphoneuser, whenever needed.
Though, books have still their credibility, but Internet has almost replaced the paper world into electronic data, and gone are the days when students needed to buy expensive books to get the answer of a simple question. Now Google search engine gives you access to vast range of literature just in micro seconds.
However, paper literature and print media have still some of their special advantages over internet. By reading a book or news paper you save your precious eyes from harmful radiations, which otherwise can cause a gradual demage to them unknowingly, due to excessive use of Internet for reading electronic text. Over and above that merit, student’s book reading gives him a full concentration towards the specific topic , because the attention of the student doesn’t get distracted to other interesting things flashing on net which otherwise remain available around the topic on Internet. The parents should allow their children to use internet in specific cases, like for browsing some important information required for preparation etc, but at the same time children should not be kept free to prepare always on internet only. Children should be encouraged more for book reading than using more internet. Because parents remain unaware about the under carpet activities of their children while allowing them to browse internet.
Internet is a good thing when used properly. Once, it is used beyond its limits, it may prove fatal. On one hand it contains good information and good services , but on the other hand there is also bulk of an unwanted bad stuff available on it. In addition to that, internet gave birth to another type of crimes, called cyber crimes. So it is better to restrict children for it’s unlimited use.
On one hand social media gave facility to every internet user to give publicity to one’s issues on it, but on the other hand rumour mongers are not away from social media to spread undesirable rumours.
Looking at social domain of internet on Smartphone , excessive use of internet isolates the user on social grounds. In past, people used to share all happy moments of their “day out” at evening time, with family members, when they would return back to home at evening after their daily routined work. On one hand you are more connected to distant people by way of social media networking services, . But on the other hand, you get so busy with your Smartphone that you forget to spare time for your family members around you.
In addition to browse useful data, most of the users remain busy the day in an the day out on Smartphone, by using internet for the purpose of time pass, while entertaining themselves by wathing YouTube videos, using Facebook , using Instogram, Using Whats App and other social networking sites.
Nowadays, all family members remain mum while busy on their Smartphones, and accordingly take the seats at different corners of the room. When the children want to ask for something to their parents, parents hardly pay any attention towards them. This kind of attitude hampers the social development of children.
Moreover continuous use of Smartphone may lead to various health related issues, which can be betterly explained by medical experts.
Smartphone is not a bad thing but it should be used purposefully and carefully. As the youngsters are mostly inclined to internet, so the parents have the responsibility to motivate their children to remain away from the excessive and disadvantageous use of internet services on their Smartphones.
Azad Hussain
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
ACT NOW |
MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |