By Nasir Hamid Khan

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interactions. The world will have a generation of idiots.” — Albert Einstein

Well, here we are — a generation of idiots amusing ourselves to death, oblivious to what may possibly be the last great pandemic known to humankind. We are unaware of the fact that handing over digital devices/screens to kids and adolescents will irreparably damage their brains in their formative years. It is akin to connecting your home power circuit to an ultra-high-voltage power line. The current condition of our brain is not much different from what would remain of the home circuit. Our 1.7 million-year-old mind is simply not equipped to handle the endless stream of digital information and algorithms that we are being exposed to. The result is isolation and impaired relationships, reduced attention spans, insomnia, stress, reduced cognition, creativity blocks, sadness, anxiety, depression, suicide, and much more. It is the fastest and most pervasive addiction known to humanity.

Smartphones and the allied digital lures are engineered and designed to be addictive, and this addiction kills all creativity, meaning, and purpose from the lives of its users, turning them into digital junkies. Neuroscientists have termed the dopamine deficit state as ‘learned helplessness’.

We recently organized an event under the ‘Common Interest Conversations’ program at Amar Singh Club, Srinagar, presided over by Prof. S.A. Romshoo, Vice Chancellor, Islamic University of Science & Technology, and chaired by eminent senior advocate Mr. Zaffer A. Shah. The conversation left me scared and anxious as I woke up from my high-octane, digital-stimuli-infused slumber. I am slowly coming to terms with the disastrous power I allowed technology to have over me and the costs in terms of lost time and relationships. Expert views shared by me in this article are mostly attributable to Dr. Anna Lembke, a renowned American psychiatrist, a world-leading expert on addiction, Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University, and author of three important books on the subject, including the New York Times bestselling book Dopamine Nation. Inputs have also been taken from Netflix documentaries The Social Dilemma (nominated for seven Emmys) and Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy. I strongly recommend watching them, as well as Fabeha Syed’s Urdunama episode on “Brain Rot” to gain a deeper understanding of the scale of this addiction.

Incidentally, the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024 is ‘Brain Rot’, which describes the negative effects of........

© Kashmir Observer