Time To Detox

With the young, adolescents and even the elderly becoming prisoners of their various devices-whether phone, tablet or the computer screen-and battling isolation, anxiety and insomnia, experts outline how you can break free

- Sonali Acharjee

EVERY MORNING, 12-YEAR-OLD AMRITA (name chan­ged), lets her 592 friends on Facebook know what she did the day before. And there is plenty for this Delhi schoolgirl to post. “I wake up at 4.30 am and study till 8 am,” she says. Breaks between online classes are spent doing quick high-intensity workouts. Post-school, there are guitar tutorials online, and homework to finish. Recently, Amrita surprised her mother by cooking her own dinner, but it was only so she could post pictures online.

She says she derives her energy from the number of ‘likes’ and ‘wows’ she gets on FB. Any negative comment, however, and she breaks down in tears. Sometimes, she is on her phone all night, mindlessly scrolling on FB. “I feel peaceful, it calms me down,” she says. But the price she pays for it? Insomnia, for which she is currently visiting the Behavioral Addiction Clinic at AIIMS in Delhi, the institute’s psychiatric OPD for internet, phone, gaming, and social media addiction.