I was half way through to work when I suddenly realised I wasn’t carrying my mobile phone. I had to reach office on time and hence decided against the strong desire to turn back home to collect it. My restless mind was bombarded with an avalanche of thoughts and made me feel incredibly deficient without the gadget.
Using a public transport to commute makes it impossible to avoid the number of people around busy fiddling with their respective phones. Some were playing games, some were in deep conversation, and some were treating their ears to some lovely music while the rest were watching films!
And I could do little but look at them helplessly wishing my phone was in my hands.
To save myself from feeling miserable, I tried to distract my mind. I thought of various things and wondered what life would have been without a mobile phone. I recalled moments of my childhood when there were no cell phones and yet people connected with ease.
Then,
no one would have even dreamt of a gadget like a cordless phone supported by the satellite that could easily fit into one’s pocket.
But now, such an instrument is a child’s play! And we (humans) have sort of turned slaves to technology wherein life almost comes to a halt sans gadgets.
Such inadvertent slavery extends beyond cell phones. I realised I feel tremors while holding a pen. Thanks to the keyboard, I don’t remember what my handwriting looks like! Sounds bizarre, but is true!
Like most people, I would argue that technology has been a boon to mankind and rightly so. But too much of dependence on it can have repercussions, I believe.
Nonetheless, I think we have merrily succumbed to a robotic lifestyle where there is more time for Facebooking and Tweeting than for relationships. These social networking sites are built in the phones as applications or Apps and one has easy access to his/her accounts.
We are busy adding people as friends on Facebook than adding colour to real life. We are busy following people on Twitter but seldom follow our loved ones around us.
The complexity of modern life has its share of pluses and minuses. On one hand technology lends us a helping hand in making tasks and most importantly communication easier. And on the other hand, strips us of the real ‘me’ time.
People live more in the virtual world and make use of ‘unreal’
Emoticons instead of emotions to express themselves. Thus creating a gap between the two worlds they live in.
Perhaps, to deal with a competitive world, people prefer the ordeal (loneliness) that the virtual world lets them experience. Real emotions remain suspended somewhere inside the hearts but seldom come out in the open.
We have happily given up the ‘art’ of penning handwritten letters to our loved ones because we have e-mails. We don’t miss our loved ones as much as we used to earlier because we have tools like video chatting and Skype.
As I evaluated the difference between a life with modern technology and a day without it, I realised I dusted hidden memories- A time when I would get ready when the clock struck 5 in the evening and wait for my parents to pick me up from my crèche. I had the patience to wait for them if they were late by a few minutes.
But now, I have turned impatient. If I were to wait for someone at a given time, I would end up buzzing that person umpteen number of times until he/she reached the spot.
Nonetheless, I feel glad that I got the much needed break from the constant notifications on my mobile phone as I could recollect warm memories of the long past.
But to be very honest, I am also quite curious to know the number of missed calls and SMSes reflecting on my phone when I get back to it!!!
