There were days when just having her phone confiscated meant crying, sulking, even skipping meals, a 12-year-old girl in Hanoi made her parents helpless because she was too addicted to short videos on social networks.
However, summer vacation in her mother's hometown in the highlands of Bac Ha (Lao Cai) brought a surprising change, when the phone was gradually replaced by highland markets, plum picking sessions on the hills and new friends.
Since returning to my hometown, I haven't asked for a phone anymore," that was the sentence that surprised Ms. Tran Thu Phuong (Hoang Mai district, Hanoi) the most when she called her biological mother in Bac Ha commune, Lao Cai province a few days ago.
The person she is mentioning is her eldest daughter who is in 6th grade. Before summer vacation, the phone was almost an inseparable item for the little girl.
In the morning, as soon as I wake up, I watch the phone; at mealtime, I also eat and watch. In the evening, before going to bed, I also have to hold the phone in my hand.
Many days I check the usage time, some days he uses it for 6-7 hours. The more he prohibits it, the more he reacts," Ms. Phuong recounted.
Arguments between mother and child appeared more and more, the mother worried that her child was dependent on the screen. The child thought that his parents were too strict.
At the beginning of June, when the school year ended, Ms. Phuong decided to send her child to her maternal hometown in Bac Ha for summer vacation. Initially, the little girl was not very excited.
In Hanoi, she is familiar with air conditioning, elevators, convenience stores and endless entertainment videos on social networks. In her mind, her maternal hometown is just a place with grandparents and houses located in the middle of the mountains.
But just a few days later, everything began to change. Their house is located near a plum valley. The early summer days are also the time when Bac Ha plums ripen.
Every morning, the little girl follows her grandmother to the garden to harvest plums. In the afternoon, she and the neighborhood children cycle around the village, and on weekends, she follows her grandmother to the market fair.
For the first time in her life, the little girl personally chose a handmade silver bracelet of the Mong people, ate thang co, and watched people exchange goods in the middle of the market.
When I called, she kept telling me. Today I went to pick plums, tomorrow I'll go catch crickets, the day after tomorrow I'll boast that I just climbed a very high hill," Ms. Phuong recounted.
What surprised her the most was that her daughter no longer mentioned TikTok or short videos as before.
Also according to Ms. Phuong, the baby's grandmother said that in the early days, she often asked for a phone. But later on, the time spent on the screen became less and less.
There are more things to do here. In the morning, a friend came to call to go out," she said over the phone.
Children in the neighborhood often invite each other to the grass at the beginning of the village to play badminton or go to the hill to fly kites. Some days, when she was too busy playing, the little girl forgot her lunch break.
She still calls her parents but no longer hugs her phone all day like before," she said.
One evening in mid-June, Ms. Phuong received a photo of her daughter sent back. In the photo, the little girl wears a conical hat, holding a basket of plums just picked from the hill. Her face is more sunny than before but her smile is more radiant.
