The Tragic Victims of Virtual Virus

Arash can’t even speak

An amazing and lively son of a doctor couple. Only 3 years old. Both the parents stay too busy for their respective profession. Since they couldn’t give enough time to their son, they provided with digital alternatives- computer, tab and smartphone; as Arash didn’t disturb them anymore, once he gets the those. Until 2 and a half years, Arash spent all his time with only those gadgets and, of course, a nanny/house maid.
Meanwhile, his parents noticed something different about him! He is not like other kids of his age. He doesn’t respond to his name, doesn’t look at anyone or interacts. His age of speaking passed but he couldn’t utter a single word. After going to the doctor, it was found that Arash has become autistic.
Now, his mother gives him time, doesn’t let him use any of the gadgets with doctor’s advice. But no one can say for sure, if Arash could ever recover completely. Who do you think is responsible for Arash’s such condition?

It is not possible to monitor or control what the children are doing in the internet

A 12-year-old school goer Tanzim and her mother Nandita. Nandita wants her daughter to be skilled in technology and is also cautious about the perverted websites that can spoil her daughter, and has used some sort of parental controls on the internet. Therefore, she has allowed Tanzim to use the desktop but with limitations. E.g. whenever Tanzim would go online her father would be notified via email.
Tanzim doesn’t use Facebook. However, one day she told her mother that she is using Amino Wordpress. Even though she and her husband are educated enough, they had never heard of any such website. They first heard of it from Tanzim. After going there, they found that the website is filled with romantic, erotic and perverted stories; and their 12-year-old daughter has been watching them, reading them for all these days. In spite of being such a careful mother she couldn’t even know about this.
Therefore, as parents their only realization is that, it is not exactly possible to monitor and control your children’s internet activities regardless of how educated you are or how much you observe, unless a permanent solution is found. The children, nowadays, are very talented and they are certainly much more intrigued with anything new.

He is not interested in anything but smartphone

The only beloved son of his mother- Rafid. He wished to get a smartphone, a guitar and a flute from his mother if he manages to achieve the best results in his JSC exams. After the results, happy with his achievements, she got him everything he wanted. And that brought the doom.
After 2 years, that was the day of his Bengali exam of SSC. His mother had to force him to bring him for the exam. He had the exam at 10am, and he was still sleeping at 9am. Because he is tired of surfing through the internet the night before. He can’t focus in anything. All he wants is his smartphone, nothing interests him anymore.
Even after his mother dropped him to the exam hall, could she have taken a breath of relief! No. Though he was in the exam hall, what was he supposed to write on the answer scripts! He didn’t study anything. His mother, baffle of the circumstances, couldn’t even understand what happened.

All he has are some virtual friends

Samin was a very good student. Their family shifted to America when he was only 7. He finished his high school with amazing results. He was quite good in mathematics and he stood first in every math competition in math mania against the hundreds of students in America.
However, he started to engage in video games, gradually, during his 11^th grade. After his 12^th grade, he stayed home for 6-7 months to prepare for his university admission. And that’s when he got addicted to video games. He used play both online and offline games. He got so consumed by the games that he didn’t even want to come to the dining table to have food, leaving his laptop behind. Therefore, ate with his laptop in front of him.
Meanwhile, his weight increased from 70 to 125kg, became diabetic and asthma patient, all his hair fell off.
He started to feel inferior about himself with his 150kg weight and bald head that he didn’t even want to go in front of anyone. His classmates used to tease him a lot. Then one day that ensued a fight and he lost his interest to go to the classes.
At present he is 180kg, he never leaves his room, engaging himself in the world of video games- this is his life. And he has some online virtual friends or gamemates, with whom he spends all his time.
Apart from that, at night when it rains heavily, he steps out of his house and takes a walk in the park nearby, for few hours. This boy could have become a good doctor, engineer, or a great researcher and contribute to the welfare and advancement of the society; instead he lost himself in the black hole of an addicted life.

She used to spend more time with her phone than her husband and in-laws

Suparna was a sweet, loving, nice, pretty and calm girl. Her father dies a long time ago. The elders of the family loved her due to her modesty and good behavior. The relatives found a nice groom for her. Everyone was happy, and the groom bought her a smartphone, before marriage.
She gradually began to get addicted to the smartphone spending most of her time in that. Even on her wedding day she was talking over the phone. Everyone thought she was talking to her groom but then it was noticed the groom wasn’t holding any phone. Then who was she talking to?
Anyway, even after getting married and going to her in-laws place she kept on talking over the phone all day. She didn’t give any attention to her new family, new environment, her new relatives not even her husband. She would get irritated when they would come to talk to her which surely started to cause problems in her family.
After a while it was confirmed that she is having an affair with a guy in Saudi Arabia. She got in touch with him through Facebook but doesn’t have any idea about her. She was so madly in love with him that she was ready to leave her husband for him. Meanwhile, her family was thinking of a way to get her rid of that guy anyhow.
But it became worse. The guy spread compromised images of Suparna on Facebook saying bad and vulgar things about her. This caused a lot of embarrassment and humiliation to her in-laws and as result they sent her back to her house, filing for a divorce. And what about Suparna? She has nothing to do but shed tears because of her stupidity. She lost everything falling into the trap of this virtual love. In spite of getting married to such an established, reputable family she got influenced by the smooth talking of a random working guy in another country. What else can she do!

He closes it whenever I step in

I am a mother. As a mother I surely want to monitor the online behavior of my child. But the kids nowadays are so smart, they understand better than us. He might be playing games in front of me but he might also be hiding many things. Because I’ve seen him closing down the tab or screen when I enter the room, and when asked he says he was playing game.
Moreover, this Facebook and Viber are free apps. You don’t need money for them; all you need is a WiFi connection. If they didn’t have the option, they would have to ask for money to recharge their phone so they can speak to their friends. But now it’s so easy! They have no limitation.
As a result, they are always occupied by that only draining all their time in that. Sometimes they even forget to eat, which is causing many physical problems as well. For example, my child’s eye sight was perfectly fine until recently. He has to wear high powered glasses but yet he as severe headaches. One day he started to have a severe headaches at 3 o’clock in the morning. After taking to the eye hospital, it was informed his eye sight deteriorated and his specs’ power increased.

Only because of his YouTube addiction

Mahiyan- the smartest among all his friends. He is doing his bachelors. He is tall and attractive, friendly and very helpful. He can solve all sorts of problem whether study related or technical stuff. However, his performance in his class is far behind. Why?
Mahiyan seeks help from YouTube for any kind of problem, including his studies and projects. Even when he has to help his friends he takes YouTube’s help.
He always stays online on Facebook, messenger, Instagram, and other social media. What happens most often is, he probably goes to YouTube for something important but then gets distracted by watching the recommended videos; which kills most of his time.
The small breaks are stretched to long hours of waste, and as a result Mahiyan misses his project due dates. He can’t even focus in his studies. Even though Mahiyan helped others through YouTube he couldn’t help himself, rather harmed him. His friends surely managed to move forward with his help but his position declined- only because of this YouTube addiction. Now he has begun to feel inferior and insecure in addition to his YouTube addiction.