As a storm brews 10 kms south of here in Puducherry, electricity fails, internet service drops automatically, ants scurry for protection in the grooves along the keyboard of the unsuspecting laptop. When one lives in the tropics, close to the ocean, along with all the romance which images of hammocks swinging between lanky coconut trees conjure up, the residents have to put up with the hazards of high humidity, under currents, over currents…and no current.
For a low-tech individual like me, it is of little importance whether I am well-connected to cyberspace or not. But, for those who like to zoom up and down internet highways, the day revolves around uploading and downloading, connecting and sharing, putting out a slice of oneself out there for others to devour, and swallowing morsels of what others serve them―unfortunately, an unforeseen hiatus in this insatiable exchange of appetites can often result in hyperventilation in some individuals.
For a great majority of the new millennium generation, every time, the internet service drops, or the payment for the plan runs out, or most frequently, the automatic updation on the laptop laps up all the juice, a sense of alienation sets in. Social skills drop to negatives. Words falter, looking for a way out. It is as though, without all the hi-tech mobile devices, life comes unplugged, severing itself from itself. Even one’s palm suffers from the empty nest syndrome, devoid of its beloved smartphone, and fingers fidget aimlessly, eyes stare in the void around, trying to find meaning beyond the screen.
It is unnerving to think that this one inanimate object called ‘smartphone’ has us on a leash. And while it gets smarter and smarter, we become dumber and dumber. Our dependence on it, not only in terms of communication and information, but also with regards to entertainment, commerce, banking, and education, have donned monstrous proportions. Holding answers to all our queries, leading us into virtual libraries, giving us tours of famous museums, playing our favourite television serials, it could literally be our very own, and personalized Alladin Lamp!
There used to be a time when people knew by heart not only the phone numbers of close family and friends, but also their addresses, along with hundreds of poems, couplets, songs, multiplication tables…statistics, countries and their capitals. And, despite having a head crammed with a thousand things, there was still space and time left to try to figure out the meaning of life for oneself, invent explanations for notions one did not understand, unscrew any gadget to crack its circuit and components.
And now? Now, we don’t really care to learn. For we are in the possession of an omniscient device, nicknamed, ‘It Which Knows’. Would I be exaggerating if I were to say that mobile technology, especially the smartphone, is not only turning us into superficial thinkers, but also making us stupid?
An expression of absolutism, the smartphone, has us all in its thrall. Like everything else, it is upto us to choose to be its masters, or its slaves, to use it as a tool, or as a weapon of self-destruction.
If the advent of television marked the beginning of a couch potato generation, the mobile technology could herald the age of walking zombies. God forbid, but if there ever were a powerful meteoric EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) interference, caused by a sizeable meteor entering the earth’s atmosphere, wiping out all connections to our electronic gadgets, where would that leave us? Would we know, how to ignite the kindling, and start all over again? Our only chance of surviving a catastrophe of such enormity, would be to re-learn to hold on to precious moments and to each other, in lieu of a phone.
There may be hope, though, if we realise that we are all connected―with love and not smartphones!
Seema Muniz, a feature writer with the Times of India group in the nineties, is an avid reader and educationist, who homeschooled her son until tenth grade, while drifting between New York and Alaska with her family. She is also an artist, with a few solo and group shows in Albany, NY, to her credit.
I LOVED this blogpost – especially the under currents, over currents and no current!
Everything about this post is so true – our dependence on the smartphone and smart whatever is frightening. As everything gets smarter we become less able to cope with life. But aa long as we are the masters and not the slaves as you said, there is hope!
Brilliantly written!!!
Thank you Lia. You summed it up beautifully. What was lacking in our life before the arrival of smartphones, is the question we need to ask ourselves. And the answer to how essential it is, would become clearer to us.