Why do we use Facebook / Messenger / Viber / WhatsApp / IMO and such platforms? Mainly to communicate, right? There’s more to it. Sharing feelings, exchanging information; sharing photos, music, entertainment — all of that’s there too!
Some people write on Facebook. What do the rest do? Broadly speaking, they maintain connections (or sometimes break them!); personal or professional.
To use Viber / WhatsApp / IMO, you have to provide your personal mobile number. Meaning, anyone can call these users if they want to.
These platforms also allow video calls. Smart people do video chatting. When necessary, when unnecessary.
Your younger brother or sister who hasn’t even started their undergraduate studies yet, who in the world’s eyes is still more or less a nobody — they too can use all these platforms. And they do! Almost everyone does. Why wouldn’t they? So much fun! Once you get a taste of these things, can you ever give them up?
Talk to them a bit and see how much wisdom and judgment they possess! They understand next to nothing about life. For them, the present is everything. Their definition of joy in life is crude and immature. I can say this with complete certainty.
They may be young, but you and I aren’t young anymore. They don’t know that if they can’t get into a good place for their undergraduate studies, life can take a very bad turn. They haven’t reached the age to understand how difficult life truly is! They think roaming around, chatting, meeting, dating… this is life!
Look into it and see how many wrong philosophies their simple, reality-distant, intensely emotional minds are following. Find out before an accident happens. Well, it’s not that accidents aren’t happening — they are! Look into it. This generation of boys and girls treats accidents as events. But the truth is, an accident is not an event. An accident is just an accident. High school students generally can’t understand on their own that the world truly doesn’t give two cents about them. If they can’t accumulate something in their minds during this time, even getting a clerk’s job will become terrifyingly difficult at some point. I say this with due respect — the guard who stands in front of my room has completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees. The guards in our other departments are no less educated either. Let’s not even talk about the clerks. In our clerk recruitment exams, many graduates and postgraduates from various public universities compete. Maybe none of them have influential uncles or connections, they have problems with basics too, so they also have problems getting jobs. The job market is very tough! Here competition and luck go hand in hand. You have to coordinate both to secure a job. Not from blind affection, but examine logically — does your beloved child have the qualification to get even a clerk’s job based entirely on their own merit without any help from you? Do less business with jobs. If the children don’t become proper human beings, will you wash away your bank balance and drink water?
Ever since the new system came, making poor results in public exams became difficult, and from then on, students’ basics started getting not just ruined, but completely destroyed. They just pass well (of course they’ll pass well! Is it so easy not to pass well?), they think speaking rudely and arrogantly is smartness, boys and girls mix freely and illegitimately, many of them have appearances that make you want to slap them hard. They have nothing in their heads. They’re growing up with very shallow thinking. What can families, let alone the country, expect from them? They think not knowing old-fashioned, hackneyed Rabindranath is smartness.
Talk to them openly, explain to them, and if they won’t understand, grab them and give them a good slap — really do it, before it’s too late! A high school student will either study or get slapped. There’s nothing in between. They pester you to buy expensive mobiles, and if you can’t buy them, they emotionally blackmail you in various ways. Do they have time to know that for their father, the meaning of life is eating a cheaper lunch and using the saved money to pay teachers’ salaries? Many of them drink and smoke cigarettes; some even do room dating. In front of you, they’ll act like they don’t know how to turn over a fried fish while eating. But in reality, they’re thoroughly mischievous. If you don’t believe it, investigate and see.
Now, what business do they have with Facebook / Messenger / Viber / WhatsApp / IMO? A student who hasn’t started undergraduate studies should have only one job — studying. We grew up without using mobile phones. We weren’t exactly stupid students! Maybe we knew a little less about world information! What’s the need to know so much, friend? What benefit are these digital boys and girls of this generation really getting? Someone who can’t get admission anywhere — do they have any value in society’s eyes? I couldn’t take the BUET admission exam. When I asked my father for money to buy the form for another university, he said, “Do you have to take admission tests even for that university?” I couldn’t say anything in shame, just lowered my head and walked away. From that day, in humiliation and defiance, I gave up sleep and studied hard. (I didn’t know anything about which university was what or how they were back then. So please don’t take this statement the wrong way.) Even after ranking second in the CUET admission exam merit list, I was too ashamed of not being able to study at BUET to tell most relatives. Now I see that even getting on CUET’s waiting list, boys and girls celebrate! Even seeing this makes me ashamed! This shame isn’t just theirs — it’s mine, yours, everyone’s. None of us can escape responsibility for this failure.
How much time Facebook / Messenger / Viber / WhatsApp / IMO waste doesn’t need to be explained in detail. How much intelligence does a high school-level student carry in their head? Those scoundrels who do these terrible, disgusting things know how easy it is to exploit or emotionally blackmail them. Due to their limited intelligence, they assume this is life! They send photos, videos, and personal information to just anyone at any time. Many of the selfies and videos they send have no clothes on their bodies, and later they become victims of blackmail in secret. You’ll never know. They don’t tell anyone about these things out of shame or fear. Gradually, frustration and disgust toward studies and life consume them, and a promising student gets lost this way.
Do you and I know where our younger siblings or children actually go when they leave home? In the name of going to school, college, coaching, or teachers’ houses, where do they spend their time? Aren’t they stealing coaching or tuition money and spending it on entertainment? Do they actually sleep at night, or stay awake on the phone? I ask, what need is there for them to keep the phone at night? Why should students of their age spend so much time on social networking sites? What need is there to be so social during student years? Do some detective work; before it’s too late! This is necessary. Get to know their friends. If you can’t mix with good students, you can’t become a good student — this is a fairly proven truth. The addiction or charm of mixing with street riffraff, spoiled, loose, vagrant types is irresistible. If you and I don’t pay attention, they’ll definitely mix with that crowd. In our time, we didn’t get our hands on computers and mobile phones until we started our undergraduate studies. It would be wrong to compare them with us. They have no shortage of tools for wasting time on bad activities.
At some point, you’ll see that your poor driver’s or peon’s child has secured admission to a very good government institution, while your own child, unable to get admission anywhere, sits staring at your face like a stupid shameless fool. Then you’ll feel like a completely failed person. You won’t want to show your face in shame. Just seeing them will make you burn with rage. But this responsibility isn’t theirs alone; it’s mine, yours, everyone’s.