Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday advised schoolchildren to limit their smartphone use and warned that excessive screen time can affect their eyesight and the ability to think.
Addressing schoolgirls at the 'Sneh Bandhan' programme organised at his official residence on Kalidas Marg here on Raksha Bandhan, Adityanath urged children to spend less time on smartphones and instead read good and inspiring books.
Responding to a student's question about the adverse effects of social media, the chief minister said technology is important but has its limits.
"If you want to move ahead in life, you have to develop good thinking. Technology is important for today's time, but it also has a limit and a requirement," he said.
"Smartphones are a challenge for today's generation. When our dependence on something becomes such that it affects our ability to think, we should maintain distance from it," he added.
Giving the example of calculators, Adityanath said people earlier memorised multiplication tables and counting, but dependence on calculators had reduced their ability to retain such information. Similarly, he said, people now tend to turn to smartphones for almost everything.
The chief minister said smartphones can be useful for accessing good content and online education, but not all material available on them is beneficial. Excessive use, he said, can dull one's ability to think and understand and affect eyesight.
Adityanath advised children who spend four to six hours a day on their phones to gradually reduce their screen time.
He also said social media contains both good and bad content and children should focus on material relevant to their curriculum.
During the programme, schoolgirls tied rakhi on the chief minister's wrist, and he gave them gifts.
Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu festival that celebrates the bond between brothers and sisters. On the occasion, sisters tie vibrant threads, or rakhis, on their brothers' wrists as a symbol of their prayers and well wishes, and brothers reciprocate with gifts and promise to protect them.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.