“May it be while driving or crossing the road or even while performing
daily life tasks such as eating or using the washroom, people just
cannot move away from their technological gadgets,” the text of the
draft Bill notes. “This problem is slowly but steadily penetrating into
Indian households and has the capability of destroying the ethos of
cultural traditions of the country.” Through the Bill, Mr Gupta makes a
case to recognise addiction to gadgets as a mental illness and a form of
substance abuse, while insisting that the government take steps to
create appropriate awareness about the addiction through television,
radio and print.
“Our whole existence today is dependent on gadgets. Even at social
gatherings people are busy checking their Whatsapp messages or Twitter
feed. There is no human interaction,” Mr Gupta told The Hindu on
the rationale behind his Bill. “This is also affecting our health. There
are reports that say it impacts our cervical angle.” While most Bills
are proposed by the government, those presented by individual MPs are
described as private member's bills. Generally, most private bills do
not get passed. They act as an instrument to draw attention to a
particular issue.
Interestingly, there are about a dozen free application that are
available for download on Android or an iOS powered device that help
users keep a tab on their smartphone addiction levels and even remind
them to take some time off from the digital world. Most of these apps
work in a similar manner, tracking and monitoring the amount of time a
user spends on the phone and giving a heads-up when it might be time for
a break. Some of these are:
BreakFree: It monitors phone usage in the background and notifies
user incase they have used a particular app for long or are making too
many calls or have used the phone for over an hour.
AppDetox: It lets users set their own rules for usage of
different applications such as Facebook and Twitter. Every time the rule
is violates, AppDetox reminds the user to take a break.
Smartphone addiction Timerlock: Parents can use this to restrict children’s access to other applications on the device for a certain period of time.
Dinner Time: Another handy app for Parents. It allows real time
monitoring of the child’s phone. Parents can set time limits for how
long the child can use their device or a specific app.
Forest: Stay Focussed: A user can plant a seed in Forest (app)
that gradually grows into a tree in 30 minutes. However, if user cannot
resist temptation and leaves this app to check Facebook or play a game,
the little tree will wither away.
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