I had seen it coming. But I had been in denial. My thinking
was how come something as critical as a phone ever get that kind of a privilege?
But it died…right in front of me, without any consideration of its own
reputation or my misery.
Now, I’m not that sentimental kind. I don’t cry at funerals.
(Not that I’ve been to one, but hypothetically if I ever got a chance, I don’t
think I would.) But this one almost had me in tears. The unexpected loss of
such an integral aspect of my existence, that too in an alien place where I had
no way to contact my driver to summon the car!
The point is life without these devices has become unfathomable.
Our dependence on these technologically-savvy, digitally-accurate devices is
such that we no longer find the need to rely on own memory or our darwinian-intelligence.
Digital devices are our demigods: Omnipresent! Resolver of all our problems!
Now, I won’t have turned so philosophical had I not lost my
other soulmate (my laptop), a few hours ago. Imagine a life without a phone and
a laptop! (and no, not on a holiday; right in the middle of a work-day) What
the heck, these days you cannot even go on a holiday without them. Who’d help
you find out about those hole-in-the-wall eateries and those 20% off online
promotions? But luckily the laptop
literally decided to wake up from its slumber. I still don’t know whether it
was my cries or kicks that did him in.
The truth is our devices have earned their spot in our
maslow’s hierarchy of needs by being our most faithful servant, aide, and
guide. To a large extent, they have made
us what we are today: Super-productive! This
“superman/superwoman” persona is so intoxicating that we can’t let go of our
digital crutches, even if we wish to. That’s why no one talks about it. We all know
we won’t be able to handle the other side of the truth.
But what we don’t realize is that these subservient servants
are slowly taking control. We are at their whims and fancy, rather than the other way round. And they are changing
us in unimaginable ways:
- Notice how many times have their incessant callings made us jump out from our sleep, dinners, showers, meetings?
- How many times have we’ve hushed people (our near and dear ones) so that we can listen to our phones?
- How many times have we pleaded to our computers not to crash?
- And how many times have we cried in front of the idiot box than in front of a friend?
So, at the risk of sounding too “hollywoodie”, I’d like to
add, ”Don’t be surprised if our coming generations morph into small-limbed,
big-headed, electronically-stimulated, robotically-programmed zombies!”
For me, I’m in search of an altar life! (Let me start by
googling it on my laptop.)
ps. And I do believe in rebirth. If not for myself, for the
time being, for my phone!