Smart Leading and Parenting of Teenage Kids in the Digital EraPaperback, 10 February 2021

The physical features of teenage kids change to catch up with their brain circuits ready to take on the pre-historic hunter-gatherer roles. The goal: resource mobilisation for survival. Resource mobilisation would not only help them survive but also to earn them invisible rewards by way of positive brain chemicals and electricity. However, the post-industrialisation scenario has been quite different. Teenagers get groomed via skill- or academic development to take on economic roles latest by their mid-twenties. Such grooming strategy does not always lead to the invisible rewards which they would have earned had they been playing their pre-historic hunter-gatherer roles. Most interestingly, today's versatile digital gadgets offer ample scope for earning brain rewards at the cost of sedentary lifestyles. The prevailing work-and-study-from-home culture has prompted the teenagers becoming dependent on digital technology and getting addicted to the gadgets for earning rewards. There is thus a new need for the parents of today's teenagers. They must smartly lead themselves and their kids so that digital technology is utilised for their healthy all-round development thus preventing any possibility of addiction.