The blue-light divide: Why today’s parents are giving up the fight
It is one or two in the morning. All the lights in the house are off, save for a dim, blue glow spilling out from under a bedroom door. A mother wakes up in the middle of the night. She gets up to drink water and casually peeks into child’s room. There they sit, a mobile phone clutched in hand, headphones firmly in place. Something is playing on the screen. Some game is going full throttle. Time has completely lost its meaning. This scene plays out every single night in countless homes today.
The next day, the cycle continues: sleeping until eleven or twelve noon, waking up only after multiple nudges. When they finally roll out of bed, a phone is in one hand and a cup of coffee is in the other. The body is technically awake, but the natural rhythm of the day is entirely lost. Staying up all night, waking up at midday, and staring at a laptop or mobile screen until the early hours has become the new normal.
Times change, technology evolves, and lifestyles adapt. All of this is acceptable. But the fundamental needs of the human body remain unchanged. The body requires physical rest. The mind needs deep, restful sleep. The eyes need darkness, and the brain needs time to regenerate and recalibrate.
Today’s generation, however, is competing with its own biology. They seem to believe that with enough technology and data, they can outsmart human physiology and circumvent the bio-rhythms.
Today’s teens have flipped the clock, treating night as day and day as night. As parents, we watch this happen. At first, we speak up. We advise them with love. Then, we try to explain the consequences. We repeat ourselves. Sometimes we get angry; sometimes we plead. But today’s kids have an arsenal of pre-recorded responses ready to fire back: “Our generation’s life is different.” Hearing the dismissals routinely, parents eventually fall silent. But their minds are far from calm.
They know from experience that if you mistreat your body, you will eventually pay the price. At twenty or twenty-five, you feel invincible. But the small seeds of chronic sleep deprivation, erratic routines, a lack of physical activity, and excessive screen time are quietly being sown.
In time, those seeds develop and grow. Irritability increases. Concentration wanes. Communication within relationships dwindles, confidence falters, and worst of all, the simple joys of life begin to disappear. Yet, for parents, the most painful part isn’t witnessing these consequences; it is the agonising realisation that they can no longer reach their children. Parents are not the enemies of their children; they are the truest witnesses to their dreams.
They are the first to pray for their success and the ones who break inside when failure strikes. They stay up all night during illnesses and celebrate their children’s victories more than their own. When a parent asks a child not to stay up all night, it doesn’t come from a desire to control. It comes from love. It comes from experience, care, and a fierce, selfless fear: “My child should not suffer.”
But when nothing changes despite endless conversations, parents gradually retreat into silence. Children often mistake this for apathy, thinking their parents no longer care. In reality, they care deeply. They have simply realized that the power of words has been exhausted, and that life itself will have to be the teacher. This silence is not a defeat; it is a sad acceptance. A heavy helplessness.
The day parents stop arguing, their worries do not end-on the contrary, they intensify. Because being a parent is a lifelong sentence. The nature of the anxiety changes with age, but it never truly disappears. Therefore, I have one request for today’s younger generation:You do not have to accept everything your parents say. You do not have to agree with every opinion. Have your own thoughts, make your own decisions, and live your life on your own terms. But occasionally, try to listen to the love hidden beneath their nagging. Because a time will come later in life when you will suddenly understand the weight of everything, they are saying today.
The writer is a senior IAS officer of Jharkhand; currently posted as Principal Secretary to Jharkhand Governor
