Harmful effects of smartphones on children

Suppose you have visited a place or been to a concert. Do you get busy taking photos there? Or, do you start counting likes after uploading a photo on your social media account? Many people even lose their minds if they do not get enough ‘likes’ on their posts.

Scientists have named such an addiction to smartphones as “NOMOPHOBIA”. Many people suffer from this problem. Such an excessive addiction to smartphones is creating physical and mental problems alongside decreasing our productivity and creativity. 

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There is no way to deny that smartphone has made our lives easier and in some ways better. Thanks to the smartphone, many official tasks can now be done very easily from anywhere. Such examples are not rare. But when we become too much addicted to smartphones then it becomes a burden for us. We spend hours after hours without any reason.

Let us take a look at some statistics:

BankMyCell, a price comparison site, and The Guardian have published some statistics, which clearly indicate that we are going to face a serious problem.

·         Users check their smartphones 47 times on an average per day, which means they check their smartphones 17,155 times in a year. The number of touches or clicks per day is almost 2700 times.

·         85% of smartphone users use their devices while chatting with family and friends.

·         80% of smartphone users use smartphones in bed before going to sleep.

·         Users of the 18-29 years age group spend three hours on smartphones on an average per day.

This smartphone addiction is not only wasting our valuable time but also causing many physical and mental illnesses. Numerous researches have been conducted on this issue. Researchers showed that smartphone addiction reduces emotion among people, increases anger and frustration and causes insomnia.

A survey conducted in the UK showed that parents’ excessive usage of smartphones has negative impacts on family life. Children are the biggest victims of this addiction. Tablet For School, a UK-based nonprofit organization, reported that smart device addiction reduced sleep among children. Research conducted by a group of American researchers revealed that smartphone addiction hinders their mental development. It is even affecting their social and family life.

Excessive use of smartphones can cause poor vision and myopia or poor eyesight. According to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, blue light from a smartphone screen can cause permanent damage to the retina and push it towards blindness.

Ear problems caused smartphones depend on user's habits. Listening to music at a loud volume using headphones affects the inner ear cells and causes an abnormal attitude in the brain. There is a risk of becoming deaf at some point.

Despite knowing the dangers of the excessive use of a smartphone, many conscious parents are giving smartphones to their children for spending time. Due to the availability of the internet, many children and teenagers are spending their time on social media and playing video games online. Many people are becoming completely addicted to these. For this reason, they are spending six to ten hours a day or more on smartphones. It is creating depression, loss of appetite, exhaustion and also causing harm to their studies. The excessive use of smartphones is having a negative impact on children’s mental health.

Smartphone addiction is as dangerous as drug addiction. A two-minute-long phone call causes hyperactivity in the brains of the children, which lasts in their brain for the next one hour.

The risk of heart attack increases double. The nerve of the user becomes weak. The mood becomes irritable. Blood pressure rises. The body gradually becomes tired and dull; even it disrupts sleep regularly. Radiation from the screen of a smartphone is harmful to the health of adults. It is even more harmful to children. It hampers the development of their brain.

Parents will have to play an important role to stop the excessive use of mobile phones. It is possible to reduce the tendency of children to become addicted to smartphones by giving them time, developing the habit of reading books, motivating them to do creative work, etc.

A smartphone is more than just an electronic device that allows two or more people who are geographically separated to communicate with one another. Rather, its additional features and latest technologies have made it more than a talking machine. Aside from the usual functions, smartphones can now be used to listen to FM radio, play music, take photographs, videos, send voice messages, and so on. We should ensure the proper use of our smartphones and keep them beyond the reach of the young people in our family. Thus, kids will stay out of the influence of smartphones.

Use of imagery in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the best poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is a long but highly enjoyable text in English literature and is read by hundreds of thousands of students around the world. This poem has remained alive since it was first published and is one of the most famous poems in English literature. In this poem, the poet S.T. Coleridge has used imagery extensively, and throughout the poem, we can find very good and skilled use of imagery. As a result of this skill of S.T. Coleridge, this poem has become even more enjoyable, and very few poems contain such artistic and grand skill of using imagery at the highest level. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the poem that has brought immortality to S.T. Coleridge in the history of English literature.

At times, the images used in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” are strikingly visual. “A painted ship upon a painted ocean” - when we think of these few words from this poem, we can easily imagine the ship in the ocean. The ship is colorful just like the ocean and the description is beautiful.

Coleridge has used sound images too. For example, “cracked and growled” and again when just read these three words aloud, we feel a kind of image that becomes alive in our mind.

Coleridge has drawn extensively from the Bible while using examples in this poem. “Albatross dies by a cross-bow, I beheld a something in the sky, were casting dice,” these are related to the Bible, and there is a Christian moral tone in the poem. There is the issue of crime, punishment and redemption, and God is forgiving. The main message of Jesus Christ is forgiveness, and this forgiveness has been used in a good way by Coleridge in the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Coleridge was a scholar, and he studied the Bible very well.

We have seen concrete images described above, but Coleridge was good at using abstract images too. “Fear at my heart”- these four words clearly helped the readers to remember their own experiences from life about fear. The poem has some supernatural elements, and these supernatural elements have been used in a very good way with the use of images. In fact, supernatural elements have been made possible by providing good descriptions and using good images by Coleridge.

The use of imagery in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by S. T. Coleridge often helps a reader to remember the relationship between nature and super nature. Coleridge has shown the supernatural things in a very natural way, and the images often helped him a lot to do the thing.

Perhaps any discussion about the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” will remain incomplete without talking about nature. Although Coleridge has an almost opposite and contrasting view with William Wordsworth about the role of nature in human life, he has described nature in a very good way. At times, his description of nature in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” clearly reminds us of his place as a great poet in English literature. There is a relationship between humans and nature, and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” shows us that we cannot totally get separated from nature. We have to respect nature, and we have to love the creatures of God. To give this message, Coleridge has often used clear and concrete images like the albatross hanging on the neck of the ancient mariner. Dead men walking on the ship, and there was water everywhere, but the ancient mariner could not drink anything. All these things have a clear impact on the mind of readers, and the readers can easily imagine them in their minds.

By using images skillfully, Coleridge has created a relationship between the poem and the readers. The readers are constantly not only reading but also imagining. Poetry is the faculty of knowledge that should make our mind sharper, and by using imagery so skillfully, Coleridge has exactly done this in the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.

Rugby Chapel is an elegy

Matthew Arnold was one of the three great poets of the Victorian age in English literature. His poem “Rugby Chapel” is an elegy, and it has some personal relationship because he wrote about his father, Doctor Thomas Arnold. Doctor Thomas Arnold was the headmaster of the Rugby School, and when he was the headmaster, the school became very famous and successful in England. After his death, the school lost some of its success and reputation. Anyway, this is a very good elegy, and before discussing this poem as an elegy, it is better to talk about the form of an elegy in English literature.

An elegy is a kind of poem where the death of a person or idea is mourned. The poet expresses his sadness at the death of a person very close to him or any idea he believes deeply. Normally, elegies are written about people rather than ideas. However, it is not only about expressing sadness or mourning or it is not only limited to that person only. The goal is to show that the person was a very high person, and there was a tremendous loss of the world or society at his death. Perhaps the most famous elegy in English literature is “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray. In that poem, Thomas Gray mourned the death of some village people and the good qualities they possessed.

The reader may ask himself or herself why Arnold wrote this elegy called “Rugby Chapel”. The first and obvious answer should have been that he wanted to mourn over the death of his father. However, it is more than the death of his father because after his father died, a magazine called Edinburgh Review criticized his father as a headmaster. This negative criticism had an impact on Matthew Arnold, and he wanted to prove that his father was not only a good headmaster but also a great person. So, there is a personal motif behind writing the elegy “Rugby Chapel”.

The loss is obviously personal because losing parents is one of the saddest experiences that human beings have to suffer in this world. A father is a guardian who looks after the children, and when we lose our father, most of us have the feeling that we have lost our shelter. Thus, the father is like a shelter, and Arnold has stated that children get shelter like a big oak tree gives shadow to people. His father always guided him, and for this reason, he could overcome most of the obstacles in this world. However, after his father’s death, he started to suffer because there was no one to guide him.

Arnold also stated that his father did not lead a meaningless life. His father was an ideal person and wanted to follow the right path or true way. He was not afraid of anything, and he was never tired of fulfilling his duties. In short, the poet’s father was a different kind of person, and he was always dedicated to his students. He was higher than the average people, and he was a good leader.

Matthew Arnold also said that his father was a person who used to encourage those people who were afraid in life. He did not hesitate to help the people and he did not care for his own comfort. Thus, he was a good person for society. The qualities that the poet speaks are rare in most people, and for this reason, Matthew Arnold’s father was a great person or a great figure.

Arnold did not fight back at the people who criticized his father. Rather, he indirectly praised his father a lot and tried to show that his father was a person who was worthy of only praise and did not lack any quality in his character. Thus, what we can see is that there is a personal intention of Arnold to prove that his father was a great person, but he has done it in a very good way. He has also shown that the qualities that his father used to possess were not only rare but also possessed by very few people alive today.

There is no doubt that “Rugby Chapel” is a great elegy, and it is perhaps one of the best elegies written during the Victorian period. Yes, there is a personal motif, and it is natural for a son to praise his father just as Arnold did. However, Arnold was very balanced when he was praising his father, and he did not show any emotion most of the time in this poem. This has given more or less a neutral point of view about the father, and it is up to the readers to reach their own conclusion about the father. If any person wants to enjoy this poem, he or she should read the background information about the Edinburgh Review’s criticism against Doctor Arnold (the poet’s father). In any case, it was a great elegy.

Symbols in “Ode to the West Wind” poem

“Ode to the West Wind” is perhaps the best poem of P B Shelley. This poem has made him immortal in the history of English literature, and it is one of the greatest and most memorable poems in the whole of English literature also. Shelley has symbolized the west wind, and at the same time, he has expressed his revolutionary ideas in this poem. 

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Shelley was good at using symbols in his poetry. In "Ode to the West Wind," the west wind may symbolize many things. The first thing that comes to the mind of the readers is that the west wind symbolizes nature but not in the sense that Wordsworth used nature in his poems. Here, nature is alive and strong, and it is personified in the form of the west wind. This nature is not static but dynamic, and it has the strength to destroy the old leaves, but at the same time, it preserves the seeds. So, the future is secured. At the same time, the west wind is like a force that can create a revolution. Shelley was among the second generation of romantic poets, and he was greatly inspired by the French Revolution. This west wind has a kind of strength that can touch not only nature but also human society. This is the dream of Shelley. Thirdly, this west wind also symbolizes the personality of Shelley. Shelley was an exceptional person during his time. He did not believe in the traditional form of relationship, but at the same time, he was different from most people and even from most poets of his time. He dreamt of a new world and a new society in which people will have more freedom and more liberty. Shelley wants that the west wind also touches him and gives him the strength to stand up in society.

The French Revolution took place in 1789, and it had a profound impact on Wordsworth, Coleridge and all the romantic poets. However, no other romantic poet was so deeply influenced by the idea of revolution. The main goal of the French Revolution was to establish a society where the citizens will enjoy maximum freedom and rights. At that time, France was ruled by an autocratic monarchy, and it created a lot of frustration among the people. It should be noted here that Shelley was influenced by the writings of Russo, and we know that Russo was a very important figure behind the ideas of the French Revolution.

Shelley was not very happy with the condition of contemporary England. No revolution similar to the French Revolution took place in England, and the king was still very powerful. The middle-class people did not have any right to vote, and the right to vote was limited to only a few aristocratic and rich people. Shelley’s own personal ideas and lifestyle were not appreciated by the contemporary people in his society. So, the condition of contemporary England was frustrating in every way to the poet.

The contemporary condition of England was like the winter, but Shelley was hopeful that spring would come. For this reason, he wished that the west wind would come and destroy the old ideas in England and bring new hope for the future. People would get influenced by new ideas from people like Shelley and perhaps to some extent from Byron, and they would rise up and start to change society. Of course, if we read history, we will know that the changes that Shelley dreamt of did not happen in England very quickly, but they happened slowly. The poets of three or four generations after him were also deeply influenced by his ideas and carried his ideas further.

Shelley also wants the west wind to influence his own personality. He wanted to write better poems and influence the people. Shelley wanted a new life for himself, and he wanted the west wind to come and make him fresh and strong.

When Queen Victoria took power, the condition of England started to change, and the rise of the middle-class took place. Freedom and equality among all the people did not come very quickly, but it was the dream of Shelley to see a democratic and modern England where people will be respected irrespective of their ideas and ideologies. This matter happened, but it took a lot of time, and we have to say that poets like Shelley and poems like “Ode to the West Wind” contributed immensely to changing England this way.

Mehdi Hasan Khan: The developer of Bengali keyboard Avro

Mother tongue is the language of freedom. In this digital age, one can either write in his mother tongue with a pen on a piece of paper or on a computer with a keyboard. Now, writing on a gadget is more convenient than writing on a notebook. But can a computer understand any language except English? Many Bengalis were suffering from this indecisiveness. Avro freed the Bengalis from this thought. Instantly after pressing few keys, Bengali letters- অ, আ, ক, খ- appeared on the computer screen. What a relief it was! Many people thought, who is the man who has done this impossible task? The answer came from the bank of the Padma river. Medical student Mehdi Hasan Khan developed this software called Avro. But how many of us tried to know about this creator of Avro that brought Bengali scripts on digital platforms? Let us remember the story of Mehdi Hasan Khan, one of the proudest people of Bengal. 

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Mehdi Hasan Khan, a Bangladeshi boy, was a medical student of Mymensingh Medical College. While studying in medical college, the thought of writing Bengali letters on the computer came to his mind. After a lot of brainstorming, he finally got his ‘Eureka’ moment in Archimedes’ style and quickly started implementing the idea. He wanted to innovate a technology that will allow people to type Bengali with an English keyboard. They will type Bengali words in English script. Accordingly, he started developing the software. At that time, people around Mehdi did not stop mocking him after seeing his ‘madness’.

He was told to quit studying medicine from the medical college. But this talented man with an innovative mindset did not pay heed to this. We got the result of his long hard work and research. From ordinary people to office workers and officers, everyone can type easily with Avro. Mehdi did not stop giving software as a gift. He made a catch line- ‘Let language be free’. The biggest advantage of it is that any language can recognize Avro. For this reason, its acceptance and popularity are the most.

Amar Ekushey (The immortal 21st February) is in our heart and soul. Today, thanks to Avro, you can express your thoughts to your Bengali beloved from Tanzania to Russia, sitting anywhere in the world by writing in pure Bengali. Mehdi Hasan Khan erased this distance. The father of Avro, Mehdi Hasan Khan, holding whose hand the Bengali language has been spread in digital platforms all over the world, is almost forgotten today. The inventor of Avro has neither international recognition nor special recognition. Doctor Mehdi Hasan Khan leads a very simple life. Watching the fruits of his labor spreading everywhere gives him great peace of mind. For this reason, Mehdi Hasan deserves credit on International Mother Language Day. 

Avro’s phonetic keyboard is the most popular and widely used keyboard among all the keyboard layouts used by Bangladeshi internet users for writing Bengali. The main reason for its popularity is that one does not have to memorize the layout like other Bengali keyboard layouts available in the market. For example, if you type ‘Ami bhat khai’, it will be written ‘আমি ভাত খাই’. Therefore, with Avro, anyone can become skilled in Bengali typing at any time by practicing for a couple of minutes. Without Avro, it would not have been possible to write Bengali so easily and in such a short time. With Avro, it is possible to type in Bengali with equal efficiency both online and offline. Another great aspect is that it is absolutely free. You will not have to spend any money. 

What is Avro?

Avro Keyboard is a UNICODE and ANSI supported free and open source Bengali writing software with graphical layout modifier for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu and Linux. With this software, we can write Bengali very easily on the computer. On March 26, 2003, Avro Keyboard software was launched for writing Bengali based on Unicode in Windows.

The literal meaning of Avro is ‘Sky’. Flipping through the pages of dictionary, Mehdi Hasan Khan, who was then an 18-year-old young man, chose this word to name his dream. It will be a free software which everyone will use. This idea motivated him to choose this name.

You must remember that before the launch of Avro Keyboard, Bijoy was the only medium of writing Bengali on the computer. But with the change of technology, the scenario has changed a lot. At present, Avro has occupied the place of Bijoy. Let’s see how long Avro can keep their dominance over Bijoy.

Relationship between man and nature in “Dejection: An Ode”

“Dejection: An Ode” is one of the best poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and here, we can find that the poet has talked in detail about nature. Nature was the most important aspect of the Romantic Movement in English literature. It was William Wordsworth who is credited with the starting of the movement, but what we often forget is that his close friend S.T. Coleridge had almost equal contribution at the beginning of the Romantic Movement. To Wordsworth, nature was very important, and Coleridge did not disagree with this view, but he had some differences with Wordsworth about the role of nature in human life and in poetry. In “Dejection: An Ode,” Coleridge has tried to talk in detail about the relationship between man and nature.

The first thing that catches our attention is that “Dejection: An Ode” is a sophisticated and philosophical exploration of the relationship between man and nature. No other romantic poet was perhaps so much philosophical like Coleridge. In this poem, Coleridge has explored his own crisis in life, and he has expressed his sadness and depression. Coleridge is most of the time melancholic. His inner self is expressed in the poem, and by reading it, we can find that he was very sad when he wrote the poem. However, this poem is more than his own sadness. It is a poem that explores philosophically the problems in life, and it also tries to find out the answer to the relation between man and nature.

Coleridge had a different view from Wordsworth about the role of nature in human life. But it does not mean that he thought that nature was not important. In fact, he has expressed or indicated the importance of nature, and we can find that the wind is helping him to express his imagination.

Although it was a sad poem, in “Dejection: An Ode,” we can find a very nice and powerful description of nature. For example, the beauty of the sky before the storm has been expressed in a very nice way. This beauty of the sky brings happiness and brings new feelings to the mind of the poet. He is sad and depressed, but he can see the beautiful sky. In fact, by his description, the readers also feel happy, and the readers can imagine the beauty of the sky and the beauty of nature.

Coleridge tries to state that nature cannot inspire him because he is very sad. He has lost the strength of youth both physically and emotionally, and he is depressed. He is in a melancholic condition, and he feels that nature cannot inspire him and change his mood. However, in some of his descriptions of nature and especially his descriptions of the beauty of nature, the readers can feel that Coleridge is influenced somewhat by nature. Otherwise, he would not be able to describe the beauty of nature in such a powerful way. If nature really did not have any relationship in his life, he would not be able to compose such a beautiful poem with such a good description of nature.

There is some joy and happiness and hope, and nature can give us a new earth and new heaven. Even in the depressing description of life, it seems to us that there is some hope in Coleridge about the future, and nature shows him that hope.

According to Coleridge, the relationship between nature and human life is giving and taking. He gets delight and confidence from nature, but he has lost his happiness. The stormy night reflects the stormy and tough conditions in Coleridge’s life.

In “Dejection: An Ode,” Coleridge has expressed that he lost his creativity and he lost the happiness of life, but it does not mean that nature has lost its importance totally. There is still a lot of bond between him and nature and even in total depression and frustration; he can see the beauty of nature. Any discussion about this poem would remind the readers about Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote his immortality ode almost at the same time and critics often talk about these two poems and about the relationship between human beings and nature. To Wordsworth, the relationship between human beings and nature was direct and very strong. To Coleridge, it was not direct, but still, it was strong.

Theme of loss in “Dejection: An Ode”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a great poet in English literature, but it was his bad luck that he could not create too many poems because of his personal problems. “Dejection: An Ode” is one of the best poems written by him, and it is a poem about sadness and depression. It was written at a time when Coleridge was suffering from many problems and he lost hope in life and future. It is the poem of a desperate man in a desperate condition, but still, it has all the artistic beauty of an excellent poem. From the first to the last, the poet talks about sadness and emotional emptiness. He talks like a frustrated person- a person who has been defeated in life.

Mood of dejection is clearly visible throughout the poem. His losses are so much that he has lost everything in life and he cannot enjoy anything. He can see the beauty in nature, but he cannot enjoy it. Instead, everything in nature looks to him dull and lifeless. He cannot find any hope and happiness even in nature. To him, everything is meaningless and the mood of dejection is dominant in his mind. It is like that he has accepted his defeat and resigned from life. He is not even in a mood to try for the future and he has no emotional strength.

The poet in the poem “Dejection: An Ode” has an elderly and mature tone. He does not have the hope and vigor for life like his young days. Coleridge accepts that his youth has passed not only physically but also emotionally. He does not have the strength of the youth in his body and vigor and naturally, he cannot enjoy the things like past. But more than that he has lost the freshness of mind and he remembers in the past his life was full of hope. Youth is the most beautiful time in a person’s life. We enjoy everything in our young time. So, Coleridge is sad that his best time in life has gone and he has lost hope for the future also. More than the loss of youth, Coleridge is sad and dejected from the loss of creativity. He was a great poet who could write many beautiful poems in the past, but he has lost his creativity. He felt that he was becoming more a metaphysical person instead of a poet. This also gave him sadness. Coleridge could not think that he would be separated from poetry, but life was difficult for him. He was failing to write poems like the past.

“Dejection: An Ode” is a philosophical poem, and it talks about some philosophical ideas. Coleridge gives his own opinion and philosophy about the role of nature in human life. Wordsworth used to think that nature was inseparable from human life and nature was alive. Wordsworth also felt that nature could hill a man in terms of sadness and depression. Coleridge stated the opposite idea in this poem and said that life is full of despair and nature cannot do anything for a man. Instead, nature only increased his sadness and nature reminded him of all the sadness of the past. Coleridge was a man of philosophy, and like any philosopher, he was good at stating abstract ideas. This poem is full of such ideas and often it may become difficult for the readers to understand the inner meaning of the statements that Coleridge was making.

If we want to understand the significance of this poem, we have to take into account of the personal background of S. T. Coleridge. He was a highly talented person, but at the same time, he was a failure in love and career. He was not born in a rich family and all through his life, he struggled against poverty. He was not a rich person and fighting for money took a lot of energy from his life. He also suffered a loss in love and although he had a good relationship with William Wordsworth, during the time he wrote this poem, his relationship with good friend William Wordsworth became bad. So, Coleridge was a failure in everything and by this poem, he expressed his sadness and frustration in life.

It was bad luck for S. T. Coleridge that he was not born in our age. Today, a highly educated and talented person like Coleridge at least would not have remained poor in a country like England. I cannot say whether he would have been successful in the matter of love, but surely he would not suffer from poverty. At that time, poets had almost no field to earn money. Newspaper was not an industry. There was no cinema or television. So, creative people like Coleridge had a very limited scope of income. Secondly, England was not a fully democratic country. Since he was not from an aristocratic background, he did not have too many connections.

Coleridge lost a lot in life, and the theme of loss is the central theme in “Dejection: An Ode” poem. However, I feel that this loss, in the end, helped him to write this immortal poem.