• Source:JND
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Jaya Bachchan, who never holds back, stirred controversy once more when she blamed the internet for the rise in anxiety among young people. In a re-released episode of her granddaughter Navya Naveli Nanda's podcast, What The Hell Navya, she voiced worries about the negative effects of Gen Z's overexposure to the digital world on their mental health.

Jaya Bachchan stated that younger people nowadays feel the need to validate themselves online all the time, which causes needless stress and fuels what she refers to as an anxiety epidemic. "Navya, what happens among your generation is that ‘answer to the calls quickly, reply to texts quickly’. You get your validation from what you see on the internet and your phone. Are we looking nice? Are we thinking correctly? If you are saying the right thing? All this increases your stress levels," she shared.

Jaya Bachchan stated that neither in her childhood nor even in her middle years did the idea of anxiety attacks existed. According to her, one important contributing aspect is the continuous exposure to web information about looks and social comparison. "We hadn’t heard of an anxiety attack when we were kids. Let alone our childhood, we never heard it in our midlife also."

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Jaya Bachchan's daughter Shweta offered an alternative perspective. She claimed that although anxiety has always existed, increased awareness has made it more noticeable. "Anxiety was always there. It’s now more identifiable. It’s more spoken about, Shweta said, highlighting that even Jaya has openly discussed her own experiences with anxiety, noting, 'It’s just more vocal'," she said.

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Internet users were not shy in criticising Jaya Bachchan's remarks regarding anxiousness. A lot of people thought she was downplaying the problem, and some questioned her knowledge. One of the users wrote, "Don't talk..don't laugh..don't cut me off...don't this ..don't that....baap re.." Another user wrote, "Sb chirchiri aurten anxiety k baray main baat kr rae hain. Mjhe anxiety hogai hai ye reel dekh ke." A third user wrote, "Ye toh typical indian family jese hai bhai."