Connect to Disconnect
Good Morning Readers!!!
Shaher ki is daud me daud ke karna kya hai?
Jab yehi jeena hai doston to phir marna kya hai?
Pehli barish main train late hone ki fikr hai
Bhul gaye bhigte hue tahelna kya hai?
Serials ke kirdaaro ka saara haal hai malum par Maa ka haal puchne ki fursat kaha hai?
Ab ret pe nange pao tahelte kyun nahi?
108 hai channel phir dil bahelte kyun nahi?
Internet se duniya ki to touch main hai, lekin pados me kon rehta hai jaante tak nahi.
Mobile, Landline sab ki bharmaar hai
Lekin jigri dost tak pahunche aise tar kahan hai?
Kab dubte hue suraj ko dekha tha yaad hai?
Kab jaana tha shaam ka guzarna kya hai?
To Doston shaher ki is daud me daud ke karna kya hai?
Jab yahi jeena hai toh marna kya hai?
No doubt, everybody loved this famous dialogue from the movie Munnabhai MBBS, but how many of us actually understood the deeper meaning and connected to it?
Technology, has it really connected or disconnected us?
Let's revisit the changing times and look over the years that have passed…
The aroma of the soil after the first rain drop! Waiting for the postman to bring our letters and singing 'Dakiya daak laya' when he rings our doorbell.
Utter bliss! On receiving a letter from a friend or getting a phone call every once in a while. This was the connect, the longing that we had. Yes, these were the days that our uncle-aunts and grandparents have lived in.
Then came the days of the 80’s and 90’s, where kids used to long for the evenings to meet their friends in playgrounds and play games like kho-kho, kabbadi, hide and seek etc. As time passed technology started growing and landlines, cordless phones became a part of all homes and handheld video games were the craze amongst the youngsters. Still, the personal touch was not lost and we were social and connected.
Technology advanced to the next level. Internet and mobile phones became the tools of the next generation and being present on the virtual world was attractive to everyone. The question asked was “Are you on Orkut?”- The first ever social networking site and thus, the funda was you being virtual meant you being social and you being connected. Mobile towers and skyscrapers invaded the playgrounds and open spaces around. But what I really see is, children these days are attracted more towards the virtual world. Even at places where playgrounds exist, children are physically sitting beside each other but are actually glued to their mobiles and tablets by chatting or playing games on it. The playgrounds and gardens are merely for toddlers.
“Geographically, the virtual world has brought us closer and connected us, but disconnected us personally.”
Over the years, with change and development of the country being measured in terms of infrastructural and technological developments, this was the need of the hour and was inevitable. Moreover, the needs and wants of the people went up and people in general started becoming emotionally attached to materialistic things than their fellow beings and are getting disconnected from oneself. The desire for perfection and the need to excel in everything is so high that even humans and especially kids are treated as machines. They are expected to be all-rounder at the expense of running from pillar to post for the whole day. The only time the entire family gets to connect is over a dinner table: 'the so called family time' which is replaced by the technology time with the presence of TV, mobile, laptop at the table.
Even marketing companies these days are making products to connect people. But is this really true? The latest craze for “Pokémon Go” was seen by all. What the game and the inventors of the same marketed it to be as: for people to come out get in contact with nature and have some physical exercise. Did it really serve the purpose? Yes, for the marketing companies and the network providers there was money added to their kitty but at the sake of public safety with people being more interested in focusing on the mobile rather than nature, the open spaces or pitfalls around. The dictionary meaning of the word mobile is
“one that’s able to move freely.” But, to my astonishment it has made us immobile and as couch potatoes with all of us being glued to it all the time. Technology and machines were developed for making them as our servants; instead we have become their servants.
Technology no doubt helps us in getting up to date information and news of the happenings around so I would not ask to shun them away. As everything is happening at the click of a button, with posts being updated, purchases being made, payments being done, we should also know when to click the pause button.
We say we are social, but being social means getting to know each other personally and virtual world will never give you the personal touch. So rather than going on Facebook and putting a status update about how you are feeling or measuring the love by the number of likes you get, express it to your near and dear ones by talking to them. Rather than asking what's up over Whatsapp, walk to that friend staying next-door or a lane away or more so pick up the call and plan to meet up right away.
To sum it up everyone is connecting differently in life, but what you should connect is with peace of mind and not stress, personal relationships and not virtual relationships, informal talks and not formal talks, genuine smile and laughter and not just smiling in selfies, people and not tools and devices.
