The other day, I came across a video in which a reporter shared an interesting piece of news. According to him, people have gradually started replacing their smartphones with basic ones. As his evidence he presented findings from several research studies conducted in different countries. For instance, a 2021 to 2024 survey report in the USA indicates that American youths bought basic phones 148 per cent more than smartphones or they seem to replace their smartphone with basic phones. Similarly, the import of smart watches in India from foreign countries decreased by nearly 35 per cent in 2024. This is obviously happening because of the adverse effects brought by such smart gadgets on human lives.
While I was watching this video, different thoughts were in my mind. The philosophy of 'back to basics' is perhaps applicable to every sphere of our lives. This philosophy means shifting our attention to the simplest and most important matters after overusing them for a while. We talk about 'back to basics' in the field of literacy teaching. Traditionally, it was taught using the 'phonics approach' which highlights teaching language by connecting speech sounds or phonemes to written symbols or graphemes. It is a bottom-up approach of teaching-reading with a focus on building fundamental skills first before moving toward the broader goal of reading comprehension. It was criticized for not being able to make students good readers.
'Phonics approach'
So, with time, the 'phonics approach' was replaced by the 'whole-language approach,' which is based on the principle that teaching-reading will be more effective if it is taught using authentic and meaningful texts rather than isolated phonemes and graphemes. It is a top-down approach where students are directly exposed to words before being exposed to discrete sounds and letters. Now, the 'whole-language approach' has also been started to be criticised. The majority of critics argue that it lacks explicit phonics instruction and encourages students to guess words from context rather than decoding. In the lack of sound knowledge of fundamental elements of language, it does not help the struggling readers. Therefore, there is again a demand for the 'phonics approach' or 'back to basics'.
Similarly, these days we frequently hear the term 'back to nature'. Human beings and nature should always be in harmony. Realising this fact, our ancestors used to have huge respect for nature; they would never go against the law of nature. So, they lived their life meaningfully and happily. Unfortunately, in the name of industrialisation, civilisation, modernisation, urbanisation, development and whatnot, people started to destroy nature. They produced a massive amount of artificial products to replace the natural products. As a consequence of too much exploitation of nature, we have been facing a lot of problems, such as global warming, pollution, different diseases, and poor health, to name a few. Faced with all these unfavourable conditions people are gradually reconnecting to nature. They are working towards preserving it via many initiatives.
Coming back to the excessive use of smart devices, it has also got numerous issues. In the beginning the invention of such a technology seemed to be very exciting! People wanted everything smart - smart phone, smart watch, smart television. For a certain time, they saw only the brighter side of this digital world. Now, people have begun to realise its darker side. The researchers are continuously engaged in their research work to explore the issues related to the use of smart phones, which have become an inseparable part of almost everybody's daily life.
Research consistently shows that extreme mobile phone use has a lot of harmful effects. Among them, some include sleep disruption, eye strain and vision problems, mental health issues (anxiety, depression), poor posture and musculoskeletal problems, reduced academic performance, phone addiction and dependency, social isolation, cyber-bullying and online safety risks, reduced physical activity & obesity risk, hearing damage. These effects are mainly related to young people.
The young students are in their formative years, so they must be exposed to different subject areas and activities from which they can learn invaluable life lessons. If they spend this prime time only sticking to their mobile phone, they miss out on many things. To address this problem, countries like Australia and the UK have already taken an initiative. The UK government is going to ban children under 16 from mainstream social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X from 2027. Australia has already implemented this initiative since 2025.
Discipline
In we talk about Nepal, the young children are free to use their mobile phones. Parents complain about this but they are not putting any effort into disciplining them. What is more problematic is the adults around those children are also glued to their phones all the time, so those little ones simply imitate them. As a result, their studies are being hampered and they are prone to disruptive behaviour.
What I find ridiculous these days is that teachers from different schools boast about teaching their primary level students coding and AI. Parents may be ignorant but how come teachers also don't know how important it is for little children to explore their world via their experience? At this tender age, teachers must support them to develop their creativity, imagination, social skills and many more. Anyway, they are going to learn computer skills in later grades. Why impose coding or AI at an early age? I pity on those teachers who do not use their common sense to make decisions but copy others to maintain their so-called image.
(Published in an English Daily The Rising Nepal on Friday, June26, 2026 )
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I would appreciate any and all suggestions on making improvements (as long as they are viable).