A 14-year-old boy in Ahmedabad stabs his schoolmate. A teenager in Hyderabad develops
psychosomatic paralysis after months of bullying. A student attacks a teacher who had
admonished him. These are no longer stand-alone headlines, but turning into frightening
reminders of an unfolding crisis lurking silently in our homes, schools, and society.
Kids nowadays are not merely angry; they are isolated in a noisy world. They are surrounded
by devices, timetables, and individuals, but they are deprived of emotional bond. When
issues become too much for them, most of them do not look for solutions—they search for
exit points. Unfortunately, most exit points come in the most brutal forms: aggression,
violence, or full withdrawal.
The Ping-Pong Effect of Responsibility
Every time these events take place, the blame game starts:
- Parents point at schools—“Teachers are not monitoring enough.”
- Schools point at parents—“Upbringing and discipline should begin at home.”
- Society blames social media—“Games and reels are poisoning young minds.”
In this endless rally, the child becomes a ping-pong ball, bounced back and forth, but never
held with care. Nobody takes full ownership, yet everyone expects the child to “know
better.” The result? A generation caught in the middle, overwhelmed, and emotionally
unprepared.
The Invisible Loneliness of Children Today
They might appear active and social, but the majority of them are lonely.
Digital Distraction: They are bathed in screen time, not dialogues. According to Common
Sense Media (2023), teenagers spend more than 8 hours a day on devices with barely any
space for authentic family interaction.
Academic Overload: With intense competition, children feel important only based on
grades. Emotional needs become secondary.
Superficial Friendships: Social media creates followers and likes, but not meaningful
relationships. A child might have 1,000 “friends” on the internet and still feel invisible.
This loneliness is not benign—it generates frustration, resentment, and in the most serious
cases, fury.
When Escaping Becomes Easier Than Coping
Why are kids responding so aggressively to conflicts? Because no one is showing them how
to cope.
Running from Problems: Social media glorifies shortcuts—unfriend, block, swipe. Life
outside social media also imitates this “end it quickly” attitude.
Bottled Emotions: With no healthy outlet to let out anger or sadness, emotions are stored
up until they blow their top.
Mirroring Adults: Children witness adults yelling at traffic, banging doors shut after an
argument, or not answering during a flare-up of stress. They learn that avoiding or exploding
is okay.
Then, instead of confronting it, some children resort to extreme responses—”get rid of the
problem” instead of solving it.
Parenting Matters, But Not Single-Handedly
Indeed, parenting is very important—but not by itself. Two extremes in families tend to
make the problem worse:
Over-Control: Parents who regulate every choice—study time schedules, social friendships,
even recess activities—rob kids of independence.
Over-Pampering: On the flip side, kids raised with overindulgence end up without resilience.
Protected from pain, they collapse or rage when real-world issues arrive.
But solely blaming parents overlooks the larger scenario. Schools, peers, media, and
community all get mixed into the child’s emotional environment.
Shared Responsibility: A Circle Around the Child
Children flourish when all involved co-operate, not when they throw blame across the table.
Parents
Listen more than lecture. A 15-minute daily check-in, unmediated by gadgets, can build
strong emotional security.
Model healthy coping. Demonstrate to children how you handle stress calmly, rather than
just telling them what not to do.
Schools
Include social-emotional learning (SEL) with academics. Educate children in empathy, anger
management, and resilience.
Enhance counseling support. One counselor per 800 students is not sufficient—emotional
health needs to be a priority.
Peers
Foster friendship groups that value kindness rather than comparison. School peer
mentoring programs can cut loneliness in half.
Media & Society
Monitor violent, poisonous online content for early children.
Encourage empathy-led campaigns wherein resilience, not violence, is portrayed as
strength.
From Ping-Pong to Partnership
The key shift lies in moving from blame to ownership. A child’s wellbeing cannot be the sole
responsibility of one institution. Parents, teachers, and communities must stand in
partnership, forming a circle of care.
Instead of inquiring “Who is to blame?”, we need to inquire “What can I do as part of this
system?”
Conclusion
Kids don’t become violent overnight. Their anger is the product of a greater
hurt—emotional abandonment, isolation, and the lack of mutual responsibility. If parents
blame schools, and schools blame parents, and society rolls its eyes at social media, it will
repeat itself.
The answer is not control, but connection. Not blame, but mutual responsibility.
Because a child who feels connected, seen, and supported doesn’t have to solve problems
violently. They learn to meet them, mature through them, and become stronger. And that is
the world we owe to children—a world where they are not ping-pong balls, but entire
human beings bathed in empathy and kindness.