Gajendra Singh, the cheerful family head, 72 years of age, is a retired government official living in a suburban duplex home, along with a family of five.
His day starts at 5 am when he’s the first one to wake up in his home. After his morning routine, he goes out to walk into a nearby park, with his friends around his age group. Their lively chatter fills up the quiet atmosphere of the park, where young people gather up for jogging.
The one common thing to be noticed is that while the old folks enter the park without phones, the younger lot can never imagine themselves without their phones tucked in their pockets, and earphones plugged into their ears.
Suvarna, Gajendra Singh’s wife, aged 68 years is a retired schoolteacher. Her day starts at 6 a.m. when she comes out of her room’s balcony to inhale fresh morning air. She prefers to stay at home to do her sessions of meditation and yoga for half an hour. After that, she listens to devotional songs on YouTube on her mobile. Occasionally, she catches up with her relatives on video calls.
Around this time, her husband returns home and rests in the balcony chair for a while. Very briefly Gajendra goes through the morning news headlines on his phone. Then he gets up to water the potted plants spread across the railings.
At about 7 a.m. their son Aalok and daughter-in-law Tara wake up together. Aalok, who’s 47 years old, works as an Accountant in a financial company. While Tara, 42 years of age, runs a boutique from the home.
Aalok attends the Zoom meetings, before setting the agenda for the day. Social media helps him as a professional to be aware of market trends, risks, and opportunities. When he takes out their pet Labrador, Aalok firmly holds the dog chain in one hand, while checking emails and WhatsApp messages on his phone on the other hand. So does Tara, also checking out fresh orders on her phone in the kitchen, while making tea and breakfast.
Pinky, their nineteen-year-old daughter, reluctantly wakes up to the 8 o’clock alarm, in her room. She is in her first year of architecture college and stays awake past midnight with her laptop, to study or finish some projects.
Checking out her brand new smartphone, gifted to her by her parents on her birthday, is the first thing Pinky does while opening her eyes. After scrolling down for about fifteen minutes and smiling at her current crush, she rushes to the bathroom.
Dhruv, her thirteen-year-old brother is in the seventh class of a boarding school. Aalok had admitted him there right after the boy’s fifth grade, to discipline him further at a formal hostel environment.
Three years ago, at the tender age of ten, Dhruv unfortunately came under the dark clutches of a vicious mobile game called Blue Whale, through his ex-classmates at the local school. After observing his weird behavior and aloofness, he was taken out of his mobile addiction with great difficulty.
Then his father and grandfather decided to shift him to a boarding school, after a couple of months of home counseling by a trained child psychologist.
It’s now 8.30 a.m., and Aalok’s parents are done with their tea and light breakfast of apples, sprouts, and a bowl of cornflakes with milk. Tara makes a heavy breakfast for Aalok, Pinky, and herself. They usually prefer cutlets, bread omelets, aloo parathas, or cheesy sandwiches.
Tara also searches for new breakfast and dinner recipes to relish on Sundays. She follows a few chefs on YouTube, apart from one famous social influencer on Instagram, to know the latest styling trends. A cook comes in at noon and at 7 p.m. to make meals for the whole family.
By 9-9.30 a.m. Aalok leaves for his office, Pinky takes a bus to reach her college, and Tara opens her boutique and stays there if a customer drops in. She has deftly learned to use Facebook and Instagram to promote her online women’s clothing business and her boutique in offline sales.
Only by 10 a.m., when Gajendra and Suvarna are completely free after bathing and doing other minor chores, do they get the luxury of using their mobile to access Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. All of this was taught to them by their granddaughter.
Pinky patiently advised them on the safe and helpful usage of all the platforms. If her Grandpa is learning the nuances of the stock market, then her Grandma restarted to learn oil painting through online classes. Pinky was instrumental in letting them join a Facebook community of senior citizens. Whereas she’s a die-hard fan of Snapchat.
Therefore, in our everyday lives, each one of us is dependent on social media to catch up with our friends and relatives, apart from acquiring some knowledge and new skills to remain updated and boost our overall self-esteem. In a study, it’s proved that mindful use of social media keeps us happy and enhances our mental health. Because it makes us feel connected to people far and wide, at a click of a button.
The Momma Clan 
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