Bhubaneswar: Is Odisha going the ‘REEL CULTURE’ way?
The question pops up in a big way when a study finds that social media fever has gripped the Odisha teens in a significant way.
The numbers are benumbing.
Eight to nine early teens in every 10 indulge big on social media and YouTube videos.
The unfortunate fact is when it comes to education related tasks on smartphones, they seem developing cold feet.
Such a startling revelation about the early teen behaviour in Odisha have come to fore in the Annual Status of Elementary Education Report (ASER) 2024.
The findings in ASER 2024 are a sort of alarm bell for the policymakers and parents alike, when social media ills are galore, nowadays.
ASER TEEN TALE
As per the ASER 2024 report released Tuesday, Smartphones have become a universal asset in Odisha households.
The ASER rural survey finds that a whopping 83% household in the State have smartphones. And around 81% (80.9) teens in the age group of 14-16 years have access to the smartphones.
The big finding of the survey has been that a massive 78% (77.6) teens use the smartphones to browse the social media platforms.
The flip side to the fore is only 71% of teen smartphone users in the State dip into browsing for getting INFORMATION.
In comparison, 86% (85.9) teens are expert in finding video in You Tube, and a massive 93% are adept at forwarding the video they found interesting.
The survey finds only 61% teens use the smartphones for education related tasks.
ODISHA DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE ....
Even as Odisha households having smartphones fall behind the national average, the fact is Odisha society’s digital transformation has been complete as in performing the digital tasks, early teen age group scores above the national average.
When it comes to doing digital tasks on smartphones, In Odisha 69% can do it vis-a-vis national average of 65.9%, finds the study.
In finding You Tube video, when the national average stands at 87%, Odisha proportion stood at 85.9%.
However, when it comes to forwarding YT videos, Odisha teens zip past the national average. The national average of teens forwarding YT video is measured at 92.1%; the proportion in Odisha stood higher at 93.1%.
....BUT
The Odisha teens were found lacking when it comes to using smartphones for productive purposes.
The ASER survey finds when 57% teens in the age –group use the smartphones for education related task in the country, the proportion in Odisha stood at par with a rate of 61.7%.
Similarly, when it comes to browsing internet for information, the national average proportion of teens doing so stood at a decent 79.3%, but the proportion of teen browsing for information in the State drops to as low as 71.4%.
This rings the alarm bell for parents and policymakers alike.
WHY ALARAM BELLS?
Here are some live findings from Odisha ground.
- Teenagers landing on adult content, when the Facebook, YouTube usage high in the State.
- As a consequence, a rise in sexual crimes observed in the rural areas of the State, evident from NCRB data.
- Odisha police has cracked many cases where teenagers get involved in a crime taking cue from YT or social media
- High social media use has also led to increase the cybercrime against women.
Besides the above, as per a study published in Journal on Academic Perspective on Social Studies, following are the negative effects of social media fever.
- More use of social media can make adverse effect on their mental health and develops the problem of addiction.
- Teenagers are forgetting the real social world and busy in artificial world.
- Social medial also reduces the concentration of the people from their actual works.(This is already evident from the ASER survey results)
- The negative aspects of the social media can destroy our life with mental illness and induce immorality.
