Reader's Quotient:Transforming the DNA of Society

Authored By Mradul Sharma:

Frankly, these days there are a lot of things for a common man to be worried about. You get an idea when you glance through a newspaper any day. Rising prices, corruption, insecurity (crime etc.), environmental or climate issues to name a very few. But there are some things that escape our attention on a general basis but are important and make a huge difference over a period of time. And I am going to talk about one such thing. I want people to notice the type of exposure our children these days are open to. All around.

The thought originated when I noticed my young sister stuck to a daily soap portraying the routine marriage-divorce-love-hate- girlfriend-boyfriend-cheating- saas-bahu-conniving- all-in-one plot with its sizzling (as they like to call it) twists and turns.

 

Television though not the only source of entertainment and impact, is certainly the most evident and effective. With reference to children it is an important thing since they are not wise enough to watch it as entertainment and forget it thereafter. They not only watch it, they think about it, talk about it in school, and more or less relate to it. The fact that there is not enough good television these days is only a part of the problem. Let me elaborate. When people imagine themselves, say in the future, or in their fantasies, or in their vision for themselves, they subconsciously tend to envisage themselves based on the images of characters and events that have had an impact on them either in real life or on screen. Though this is predominant in children, who are more receptive and gullible, it is generally true for everybody.

Adults however, can more often rationalize things whereas children, while in their formative years end up trying to fit in such things in their system of beliefs and emulating them unaware. Although portrayal of expressions of prejudice, anger, jealousy, cheating, sexuality etc. cannot be called wrong as they are in essence required to be a part of every script, their rampant and indiscriminate use in stylizing characters and to pep up the script for better ratings without providing for a reasonable conclusion or message (which we hardly see) is a recipe for disaster. In fact, there have been serials which started off with a relevant theme and later digressed onto the same clichéd themes for obvious reasons. And as I said this is only a part of the problem. Internet too, is playing a camouflaging role in disorienting children in the contemporary society where the indispensability of computer education is obviously not needed to be explained. The easy availability of facts and opinions on a regular and plethoric basis undermines the need for self interpretation at some level which leaves a hole where a fundamental approach to understand cause and effects might reside, thus also effectively reducing the need of analytical exercise one might require while going through say, a good text book.  As per author Nicholas Carr(in the article on CNN), "Researchers have found that students who read text with hyperlinks, as you routinely find online, end up with a weaker understanding of the material than students who read the same text in a traditional, linear format, as you'd find in a printed book." The effects of internet for that matter can be a subject of a whole different write up. So, now I am supposedly ready to make my point. First and foremost we need children (in foresight, citizens) to be well balanced, free of prejudices (racial, financial etcetera etcetera) and to be able to make correct decisions for themselves and the society. For this we need them to be of good disposition in terms of education and mental state and ability.

We can now see how the quality of exposure as in the television, internet etc. might affect in the long term. One more extremely important factor which cannot be overemphasized is the role of parents. This too is a widely discussed topic of discussion with everybody aware of the ABC’s but there is just one thing in particular I would like to point out. Parents, in most cases are unable or unwilling to draw the fine line between advising or guiding their children and imposing (and thereby propagating) their own prejudices, insecurities and fears on their children. This in turn disseminates the beliefs among further generations and structures of society thus making it insecure and unsure. I think that it is very important that parents, apart from providing for a proper and balanced advice must leave it to the children to take decisions for themselves (except of course in certain compelling circumstances) and in case of mistakes bear the consequences for that is the true way of learning and gaining confidence and experience. I quote Rushdie in Midnight’s children: “Children are the vessels into which adults pour their poison”. There is thus a compelling need to improve the way our children are growing up even in the educated and fulfilled echelons of society, let alone the poor and derelict ones, if we need to contradict this. We need to ponder upon providing them with ways of open and unmutilated forms of learning and growing up. Of late there have been attempts of spreading similar messages through movies like “3 Idiots”. I hope people took a note and didn’t just return home caught up in popcorns and soft-drinks before they went to sleep for the next day’s grind in the mill.