Eighteen-year Soniya slept at the most three hours a day, thanks to her addiction to digital gadgets. Soniya knew that she was going down the wrong path. In her daily life, she was often found making bad decisions, neglecting her studies, fighting with her parents and feeling generally unsatisfied with her life. Nevertheless, giving up technology was asking too much from her.

She didn’t realise when she got addicted to it, but considering her life without her mobile phone was unimaginable. She would often skip meals, or give an excuse to not hang out with her friends just to scroll through social media.

Soniya was always found on Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. Because of keeping herself up most of the night, she could not attend her college regularly and often got scolded by her parents. Her teachers had already sent several notes to her home for irresponsible behaviour, but it didn’t matter to her.

Soniya had developed mood swings as well, sometimes she was angry, sometimes she was happy, and, at other times, she would simply not pay attention to anything at home. Her parents were now worried for their daughter.

Months went by, Soniya’s grades also went down and down, her dark circles kept increasing, relations with her family were deteriorating, the only people she knew were her social media friends, actors and the idols she followed. In short, her life was a total mess. It was then her parents decided to take a hard, but serious step.

Summer vacation had started. Soniya was, as usual, curled up on the couch, smiling while going through the screen of her mobile phone. Her mother came and told her that they are sending her to a bootcamp for some time. The bootcamp was dedicated to helping youngsters get off their screens. When Soniya’s parents had found out about the camp, they immediately enrolled her in it. They further decided that they will inform Soniya only a day, before so that she doesn’t get time to think of skipping it. Soniya shouted, cried and wailed to her parents, but they stood by their decision.

The next day, her father took her to the camp. The camp was organised far away from the city in the natural setting of lush green trees and mountains so that participants could enjoy nature and forget about their daily life. Soniya was dumbstruck to see the view, she had never seen so much natural beauty in reality. There was no traffic, no sound of people, the only sound she could hear was the chirps of birds, the breeze and the swaying trees.

The hut-like big camp was beautiful and there were many kids of different ages, sitting or wandering around. Her father kissed her forehead and bid farewell.

Soniya was perplexed, just then the moderators at the camp announced that all the participants should put all the digital devices in a box placed at the gate, which would be returned to them on the final day.

Soniya felt like her life was taken away from her. She felt lost in the middle of nowhere and before she could dwell on her misfortune any further, Soniya was jolted by the girl standing next to her to listen to the briefing. The moderators briefed about all the activities that were going to take place in the next three weeks’ programme. The days were designed with a lot of activities, including meditation, exercising, cooking, art, bonfire, relation building tips, music, gardening and a lot more. In short, there was nothing related to technology, the children were taught to reach their full potential and build positive relations. Furthermore, they got time to reflect on their actions and how the excess use of technology was only having a negative impact on their lives.

The first two days for everyone at the camp were very hard. All felt irritated and angry. But from day three, it changed like magic. Everyone got involved in the activities with interest, including Soniya. Everyone became friends with each other.

The camp also allowed the youngsters to talk to their parents for ten minutes a day. A week later, Soniya was feeling pretty relaxed and when it was time to talk to parents, she felt ready to apologise for her irrational behaviour with them. Her parents were in tears, they were grateful that their daughter was improving. Soniya realised that she no longer had that itch to use her phone and that she was better off without it.

Three weeks passed by; all the addicted kids felt fresh and new. Soniya returned home as a new person, bubbly and with a glow on her face.

She spent the rest of her holidays with minimal use of her phone, only opening it for her assignments. Now Soniya was happy and satisfied with her life. Her relations with people around her improved, as did her grades and confidence.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 21st, 2023