KAUAI, HAWAII, July 1, 2026 (Hinduism Today): Rajeev Chaudhry compares children’s immersion in smartphones and social media to the Mahabharata’s Chakravyuha battle formation—easy to enter but difficult to escape. Drawing on social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation,” he describes the period from 2010 to 2015 as a shift from play-based childhood to phone-based childhood and points to reported increases in adolescent anxiety, depression and self-harm during the same period.
Chaudhry turns to Hindu concepts for a framework for responding, particularly the Kathopanishad’s image of the body as a chariot, the senses as horses, the mind as reins and the discriminating intellect as charioteer. He argues that children need opportunities to strengthen attention and inner balance rather than simply absorb ever more information. Reestablishing unstructured real-world play is central to his proposed response, drawing on the Hindu concept of leela, or divine play.
Source: https://www.hinduismtoday.com/magazine/july-august-september-2026/escaping-the-digital-chakravyuha/