It is not a new phenomenon that children have become addicted to their smartphones. We have started living in such a gadget-dependent world, that even a few minutes without them can make us feel restless and anxious. We are gradually forgetting the importance of human connections and human touch. Travel by any public transport and you will see, that people are all busy with their cellphones or tablets and do not even talk to their fellow passengers, even if it is an extended hours journey.
At the conference, we learned two new words, “Nomophobia” and “Sharenting”.
Dr. Pinaki Chakraborty, Assistant Professor of Netaji Subhash University of Technology, was one of the presenters at the conference. He acquainted us with this exquisite word called, “Nomophobia”, which meant that when a person does not have access to cell phone or their services, they turn restless. His presentation was one of the most invigorating one and hence his paper was awarded with the best paper award.
His research conducted a study with several school-going children, mostly adolescents, where they were asked to answer questionnaires with options ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. His research was mostly empirical, scientific, and quantitative.
Another new discovery was, the introduction of the concept of “Sharenting”. Most of us had heard of it for the very first time in our lives. Sharenting meant, that when parents share videos, photos, reels or any other content of their children online without their consent, or keeping in mind any other privacy concerns. It can be labelled as, a joint activity of sharing and parenting simultaneously. Rosalina Costa, Professor of Universidade de Evora, spoke about “Sharenting and Children`s Rights in the Digital Age: Challenges and Perspectives.”
She told us that ostensibly it seems like a harmless practice, but if continued for a prolonged period of time, it can have future negative implications for our children. Their photos and videos can be used for any kind of unethical purpose in future.
The use of AI for new age development and research is highly warranted in today`s era. Something similar was reiterated by Md. Kasim, professor of media and technology and former director, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, JMI, who was also one of the keynote speakers at the conference. He said that the new kid on the block is AI and deep learning, which has redefined the media landscape. The impact of AI on society is going to be similar on what the discovery of electricity was in 1752. The change that is taking place is rapid. According to sources, 25% of the world population is below 13 years and about 2 billion. He divulged into the several ways through which, the landscape is being unfolded and how that will impact us. In the coming era, we cannot weaponize data, and we need to focus on how to find that knowledge through AI. Unfortunately, the global south is pervaded with all sorts of problems and there is not enough space for any new invention to take place.
A very good example of using technology for the uplift of society can be, per say, of a former student of Cambridge who invented a vending machine for chholey bhature to accommodate the hygiene requirements of some specific customers. Another instance can be how one can use AI and its tools to identify problems and find the requisite knowledge to solve them, for instance, paper-saving issues in the USA.
Unfortunately, here in India, we do not have an education system that supports such research facilities, and hence, it needs a revamp to a good extent. We have to align it with new and modern times. Some countries are contemplating banning ChatGPT, but he stated that he staunchly opines that we must find ways to discover and encourage students to use ChatGPT more effectively.
So, we can say that the access to digital resources are very beneficial for the upcoming generation but we must be aware on how to use them positively. Whether it is ChatGPT, or any other AI tool, we must abstain from practices like sharenting and avoid falling prey to addictions like Nomophobia.