Epidemics do not always arrive with fever and cough. Some travel through behaviour, culture, and the devices in our pockets. 

A new pattern has taken hold in Kashmir since the pandemic years: a swelling hunger for attention, validation, and constant digital engagement. 

This urge now mirrors the logic of an epidemic, spreading rapidly through young lives and exposing social vulnerabilities the valley has never faced before.

Epidemiologists examine three elements: host, agent, and environment. Apply this lens to digital behaviour and the picture comes into sharp focus. 

The host is the user, particularly young Kashmiris who spend hours each day online. The agent is the reward system of likes, shares, views, and followers that delivers instant psychological gratification. The environment is an expanding ecosystem of smartphones, cheap data, and platforms engineered to capture attention and never let go.

Global digital exposure has reached unprecedented levels. More than two-thirds of the world’s population now has internet access, and billions use social media actively. Average daily use worldwide has crossed two hours per person. The figure runs higher for young users. 

The digital environment is no longer a marginal activity. It has become a dominant force, increasingly replacing physical social space.

India reflects this transformation in an even more intense form. 

With hundreds of millions of internet users and extremely low mobile data costs, the country ranks among the world’s most active digital societies. Smartphone penetration has exploded during the last decade. Most internet access now happens through handheld devices. Young people between 16 and 30 represent the most active segment of this population.

Kashmir has experienced this transition within a remarkably short........

© Kashmir Observer