Child cuddling is now being replaced by mobile phones. Discuss its impact on the socialization of children.
Approach · directive: “discuss”
What it asks · Discuss how substituting mobile phones for parental touch, talk and play affects children's emotional, cognitive and social development.
The question has 2 parts — answer each
- Discuss the impact of replacing parental touch, talk and play with mobile phones on children's socialisation: emotional, cognitive, social, values and health
- Indicate the context driving the shift and how balance can be restored
Open with · Socialisation begins in warm, responsive interaction with caregivers; when screens replace that touch and talk, children lose a key early learning channel.
Cover
- Emotional bonding: less touch, eye contact and conversation can weaken attachment and emotional security, raising irritability and anxiety.
- Language and cognition: fewer conversations and stories slow language, attention and imagination; passive viewing is not interactive learning.
- Social skills: less shared family time and peer play reduces empathy, turn-taking and self-regulation, and children may prefer virtual to real interaction.
- Values and content: unfiltered exposure to violence or consumerism shapes norms, and parents lose ground as the main agents of socialisation.
- Health and context: eyesight, sleep and screen-addiction concerns; dual-earner and nuclear families with less grandparent support drive the substitution.
- Balanced use: parental role modelling, screen limits for young children, quality content with co-viewing, and school and community awareness.
Close with · Technology can support learning, but it cannot replace human warmth; responsive interaction should remain the first curriculum.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2023, GS Paper I — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 223 words (UPSC limit 150) · Minimalist IAS
Socialisation begins in the lap: a child learns trust, language and feeling from being held, spoken to and played with. When a phone stands in for that contact, the first school of social life weakens.
Impact on socialisation
- Emotional bonding: less touch, eye contact and responsive talk weaken attachment and security, seen in irritability, anxiety and tantrums when the screen is removed.
- Language and thinking: a child learns words in conversation, not from passive viewing; fewer stories and questions slow vocabulary, attention and imagination.
- Social skills: shared meals, play and sibling quarrels teach turn-taking, empathy and self-control; a screen offers none of this, and children may prefer virtual to real company.
- Values and role models: unfiltered content, advertising and violence become silent teachers, and parents lose their place as primary agents of socialisation.
- Health: disturbed sleep, eye strain, obesity and early screen dependence.
Why it happens
- Dual-earner nuclear families with little grandparent support, long commutes and the phone as easiest pacifier.
Restoring balance
- Parents model use and set limits, in line with WHO's 2019 advice of no screen time before age two; co-view content; keep meals and bedtime device-free; use anganwadis, schools and paediatricians to promote responsive parenting.
A phone can inform a child, but only a person can socialise one; warm, responsive interaction must remain the first curriculum, technology a supervised supplement.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.