Sunday, 8 January 2017

Look around, will you?

 

PC: Thinkstock
 
Look around, will you?
 

It was an idyllic scene. In the fading, golden light, two girls, just about 15 years of age, shrieked and yelled; they pulled ridiculous dance moves; they laughed and had merry.

And…after a while, suddenly, what’s that--? One of the girls pulled out a ludicrous smartphone, and started shooting each other! The camera lens pointed directly at them. Very soon, their expressions changed. They grew more serious, their moves more arch and self-conscious. And a while later, they stopped running around and lay still on the grass, looks of steady concentration on their faces, studying the footages they’d just taken of themselves. And trust me, seeing those pictures, they were not at all satisfied with the way they looked onscreen.
      
Technology empowers us, ironically at the same time, its absence paralyzes us. It reconnects us with people across seven seas but disconnects us from someone sitting right before us. Unfortunately, your virtual life earns more ‘likes’ and ‘TRPs’ than the real one. Today, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are flooded with edited images; and its result – envy, jealousy, disappointment, dissatisfaction and low self-esteem.

Five years back, I was overwhelmed to use the 2G internet in the palm of my hands. I waited patiently till the page loaded and the app was downloaded. Then came 3G, which was faster and I liked it. But, today, 4G has killed the patience in all of us. We find it utterly miserable to wait even for ten seconds in front of that rotating blank screen.
 
Pc: Shutterstock

Technology can be a very perilous object. It is a virus and an anti-virus in itself. Recently, a remarkable picture caught my attention. The picture of ‘Evolution’. From a monkey to Homo erectus to the slouched mobile man. The curve progresses and again regresses. Physically there is no difference between the cave man and a couch potato. Have you heard of ‘techno-besity’ that researchers today speak of? Overloaded technology with overloaded fat!

Androids were invented to free us not to enslave us. Just take a minute to look around your house. The laptop being charged on your right, the tablet on your left, the spectacular TV in front of you while those gangling wires oozing out of your mobile phone plugged deep into your ears clog your brain. We have created mechanical prison bars around us and amongst us.

Friends, technology perhaps has satisfied our wants but failed our needs. The need to be physically active and socially outgoing.

 
Sharlene Lobo,
Care Foundation - We CARE.
 

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