Youth trapped in reels

We live in a busy digital world. Screens are everywhere. They connect us easily, but they also steal our peace. Slowly, we are losing ourselves to our phones.

Social media was meant to bring us together. Now, it often keeps us apart. Families sit in the same room but do not talk. Everyone is focused on a small screen. We are forgetting how to simply sit and converse.

Short videos and endless scrolling steal our time. Hours disappear like magic. These apps give quick thrills but leave our minds exhausted. We watch so much unnecessary content that it silently drains our energy and disturbs our peace of mind. Our patience is fading. We used to enjoy long stories, good movies, and deep conversations. 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 expressing our real feelings to friends.

This digital habit is truly harmful. First, it brings hidden stress-we feel busy but accomplish little. Second, it destroys our focus; reading a book or enjoying a quiet moment has become difficult. Third, it ruins our sleep; we scroll on our phones until dawn. A tired mind cannot be happy.

How do we reclaim our real lives? We need to wake up. Often, we give a phone to a crying baby just to calm them. We use phones to escape boredom. This must stop. We need to learn to enjoy quiet, simple moments again.

We must take back control. The phone is a tool, not our master. We should spend more time outdoors, play real sports, walk in nature, and look at the open sky. Setting clear boundaries for screen time at home is essential. Let us put our phones down and look into each other's eyes again.

Md Shihab Uddin

Volunteer

UNICEF Bangladesh