Youth tapped in Reels

We live in a busy digital world. Screens are everywhere. They connect us easily, but they also steal our peace. We are slowly losing ourselves in our phones.
Social media was meant to bring us together. Now, it often keeps us apart. You see this everywhere. Families sit in the same room, but they do not talk. Everyone is looking at a small screen. We are forgetting how to just sit and talk.

Short videos and endless scrolling kill our time. Hours disappear like magic. These apps give us a quick thrill, but leave our minds very tired. We watch so much unnecessary content. It silently drains our energy and ruins our peace of mind.Our patience is fading away. We used to enjoy long stories, good movies, and deep talks. Now, we cannot watch a simple video for more than ten seconds. We skip, swipe, and rush. This constant hurry makes us restless. We even share funny videos instead of sharing our real feelings with friends.

This digital habit is truly hurting us. First, it brings hidden stress. We feel busy, but we achieve nothing. Second, it destroys our focus. We cannot read a book or enjoy a quiet moment anymore. Third, it ruins our sleep. We take our phones to bed and scroll until dawn. A tired mind cannot be happy.

How do we get our real lives back? We need to wake up. Often, we give a phone to a crying baby just to calm them down. We use phones to hide from boredom. We must stop this. We need to learn how to enjoy quiet, simple moments again.
We have to take back control. The phone is just a tool; it is not our master. We need to spend more time outdoors. We should play real sports, walk in nature, and look at the open sky. We must set clear boundaries for screen time at home. Let us put our phones down and look into each other’s eyes again.

Md Shihab Uddin
Volunteer, UNICEF Bangladesh
The author is a independent researcher and a student of Folklore and Social Development Studies at the University of Rajshahi.He may be contacted at shihab.fsds@gmail.com.