NexRipple

It’s been a decade now since Internet and Cell phones actually started becoming “essentials”. Catch hold of a school student (The “Gen X” league) who hails from any cosmopolitan habitat and try explaining to him that life did exist before Cell phones and Internet and you would probably see either a blank look (at best) or a disdainful look which actually makes you feel like scum between the toes.

People feel naked, vulnerable, if for a day they are without their cell phones, if they can’t go online to check their e-mails or post messages in a social networking site. True, life had become convenient, tickets on the web, mail on the web, counseling on the web, sex on the web!! But somewhere aren’t we overdoing it and losing the human essence to things? Wasn’t life comparatively simpler before these actually started becoming essentials in our lives? Owing to my age, I have had the privilege of witnessing the start to a new era and also the end to innocence and simplicity.

Let’s roll back 20 years when Cell Phones were not available; Internet was only a Defense Services communication mechanism. You could walk into a friend’s, a neighbors’, an acquaintance’s house without fixing an appointment or announcing your arrival and people will still greet you warmly. Can you even think of doing that today with your next door neighbor, leave aside an acquaintance? One can argue that Cellular service is a great boon in the time of an emergency but let me put this question- were there no emergencies before the advent of cellular services?

Internet- the greatest invention in decades!! True, but is it not being misused? When was the last time any of us actually took out the time to pen down a personal note the old fashioned way to a friend or family? Kids would rather spend hours on the computer playing games, chatting, blogging than being out with other kids and playing. I remember my childhood, it was a happy one where the sole purpose was to complete my homework and get outside to play a sport with the kids in the neighbor hood. Did we have to bother about the obsolete configuration of computers every 6 months due to which we could not play the latest game? No. Yes, we did not have the exposure but we had privilege of being innocent.

The impact of technology has if at all only complicated the life of a commoner who is now thoroughly confused between the two worlds. Peer pressure to possess and know the about the latest gadgets & technology versus leading a carefree innocent life. Life has caught on a pace but is that doing anyone any good? With heart Attacks at 30, Obesity becoming and epidemic, marriages being annulled in 15 days, I guess we were better off without “Connecting People”. Call of the hour- The Return to Innocence.

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