Swamped By The Screens

Like the Buddhist monks completely immersed in prayer, the heads of all five window seat passengers in the vehicle were bent. Were they meticulously observing their crotch, I wondered for a while. At the next traffic signal, I managed to closely watch the Tempo Traveller which was carrying this young bunch. Some faces were serious and some had a hint of smile playing on their lips. Ah, then I realized. They were looking at their mobile screens! As I caught a glimpse of them off and on for the next five minutes, not even once I saw anybody looking straight ahead. Two years down the line, will some of them walk with a permanent tilt to their torso? May be.

In this age of technology, I am just past the Ice Age. I discovered whatsapp about 4-5 months back and am yet to get hooked. 4G is still an option waiting to be adopted and internet is switched on in my mobile only occasionally. Ipad and imac, though enticing, seem obscenely expensive and I have refused to bite the bullet. A pocket notebook continues to be my option to jot down the grocery list though I find the reminder option in mobiles extremely useful. I enjoy music on my mobile while travelling. As I am uncomfortable with typing on a touchscreen I have shied away from tablets till now even as my kids keep telling me that a tablet would be great for games. Despite all these precautions, I feel that somehow I am failing to arrest the invasion of technology into my private life. I am being dumbed down by technology. My attempts to prevent the assault have been, I am afraid, feeble. Mobiles and laptops have thrown my schedule-if ever there was one-into complete disarray.

From morning till night, technology gives us company. Checking the facebook page sitting on the pot, sticking the plastic headphone buds up our ears during the morning walk, stealing furtive glances at the mobile screen (placed opportunely on the thighs) during office meetings, gadgets have become an extended appendage of our body. I am sure you have read about a man who took a selfie with the corpse of a relative and posted it on the facebook. Sad that there is no option to click ‘dislike’. This selfie craze completely beats me. Is there really a craze or it is just a media hype, I am not really sure. Don’t you think selfie is self-love, an unhealthy narcissistic trend among the youngsters?

If you accept that watching the screens is a normal thing to do, then there is nothing much to worry. When Wikipedia is the only source of knowledge, Arnab’s harangue genuine fount of news, PlayStation is what children call games and TV room the sole place of family assembly, all is well. No chirping of birds in the morning, no cycling or cricket for the kids, no social life with friends but for facebook and whatsapp. What really gets my goat is seeing couples in restaurants or parks busy unto themselves engrossed in their respective mobiles. What #$%^&# kind of romance is this? Thank god, mobiles were non-existent during my youth!

Nowadays I sometimes find myself involuntarily reaching to the mobile and checking for the latest whatsapp messages. Or typing ndtv.com to see the most recent news. As if CBI is going to be independent or China has relinquished its claim on Arunachal or Srinivasan has decided to dissociate himself completely from cricket in a matter of thirty minutes. What rubbish! No wonder I take twice the time to read one book these days than I used to before the onslaught of screens. My wife Praneetha who is spectacularly unimpressed by the gadgets is at peace with her Nokia qwerty mobile, rarely visited facebook page, never-opened whatsapp and only-when-necessary email account. I am not surprised that she has much more time than me for morning walk, to read, garden and to go through the kids’ schedules.

Many of us surf the internet for unnecessary knowledge which we will never use, fancy products which we will never buy and exotic locales which we will never visit. But when there is some free time, the laptop is pulled close and we type google! Though internet is a treasure-trove of necessary information, we find it difficult to put a full stop when the essential job is done. Trivial matters become important and we conveniently invent genuineness of the inevitability of the material we are seeking through the web. The gadgets definitely have their positives. But are they also making us lazy, less-active, hunch-necked, irritable, less-sociable and screen-centred? After all, there is more to life than screens and monitors. As for myself, I do not know when I will be able to wriggle myself out of this web but I believe that I am making an effort!