It was a few days before that google announced it s database of most searched celebs, phrases etc.., and i was watching a news item on how Katrina Kaif was the most searched celeb. Well, you many think, "what a useless stuff to do?" Everything we do in life need not have a meaning, rite? I was indulging myself in one of those futile act's, whiling away my time, when i happened to hear a sociologist talk about how orkut and facebook have penetrated in to the life of the youth.
A pang of conscience struck me and I started thinking about what has become a part of today's youth's daily vocabulary, social networking. I sometimes feel amazed at the amount of time people (me included) give to their social networking site's . It has become so much of a routine that you feel uncomfortable if you havent checked your orkut profile for 2 days. It would not be acceptable to me to restrict this piece of prose to social networking web site's. All the modern day gadgets, 3G mobile's, even TV's which people have accepted to be part of their life's should also be within the purview of this discussion. I better make it clear that we are not into a 'technology is good or bad' discussion.
The question which made me ponder was whether we were getting more and more into the virtual world of internet that the real world relation's aren't accorded with the time they ought to get.
I am one of those lucky few, staying with relatives in workplace as a bachelor and therefore, enjoying home food. But, I ve visited a few bachelor den's. And the most common scene would be something like what i shall describe below:
A house shared by 4 close friends, one guy sitting in a corner browsing orkut/facebook, another guy probably sleeping or lying under the blanket sms'ing someone, 3 rd guy watching a movie with headphones on and the last one, in another far corner preparing for an impending competitive exam, checking out university info on the net. Where is the interaction here? There is interaction in all the places, but, with people who are everywhere but right near them.
These days, everyone seems to prefer blogging their thoughts into the net to sharing it with the person sitting right next to him/her. I have been a victim of this myself at college, where SMS'ing was a rage. It was a time when people wouldn't get sleep if they dint complete the 100 sms quota of that day :) A person not roaming around sms'ing was considered an outlaw :) When walking with 2 of your friends, you walk sms'ing a 3rd friend and when he also joins you in person, talk to the three of them while sms'ing a 4th person. :) Thank god, i realised what i was doing and now i have a plan in which sms costs 1 re while call costs 50p :)
Even in home's most of the interaction is about the TV serial episode that one of them missed due to some other activity or a fight for viewing their favorite program. Hasn't our sub conscious mind adopted it as being natural? I wasn't a big fan of cutting 'cable TV' (atleast that's what they call it in my small town) when it was a fashion for parent's to do that when their child got nearer to board exams. I also couldn't help but be a vitim of that phenomenon when i was near class 10 board exams, for around 2 months. It was the time when tehelka.com sting operation was making big news. Sure, i missed all that excitement. But, i must admit, it was indeed good. We got a lot of time for each other in the family and after some time, it wasn't actually difficult.
My college life was beautiful mainly due to the hostel life and I would attribute the success of our hostel life, partly, to the lack of TV and Internet in the hostel. Had those been there, the amount of time we took to develop our bond's would have been surely eaten away by Jodi No1, crorepati, orkut and other website's I dare mention in my personal blog :)
Coming back to the scene of thought, the sociologist attributed the increased access of virtual internet world to the lack of bonding in the real world. I am not here to attest her claim, I am merely trying to correlate her views with my observations. It s good to share our thoughts on the web and reaching out to the world, but, we must also take care to see that we don't neglect our real world relations. If we realize this and take time to switch off our laptop's, TV's, Mobiles every now and then and sit and talk with those, whom we live with, don't u think the world would be a much more beautiful place?
A pang of conscience struck me and I started thinking about what has become a part of today's youth's daily vocabulary, social networking. I sometimes feel amazed at the amount of time people (me included) give to their social networking site's . It has become so much of a routine that you feel uncomfortable if you havent checked your orkut profile for 2 days. It would not be acceptable to me to restrict this piece of prose to social networking web site's. All the modern day gadgets, 3G mobile's, even TV's which people have accepted to be part of their life's should also be within the purview of this discussion. I better make it clear that we are not into a 'technology is good or bad' discussion.
The question which made me ponder was whether we were getting more and more into the virtual world of internet that the real world relation's aren't accorded with the time they ought to get.
I am one of those lucky few, staying with relatives in workplace as a bachelor and therefore, enjoying home food. But, I ve visited a few bachelor den's. And the most common scene would be something like what i shall describe below:
A house shared by 4 close friends, one guy sitting in a corner browsing orkut/facebook, another guy probably sleeping or lying under the blanket sms'ing someone, 3 rd guy watching a movie with headphones on and the last one, in another far corner preparing for an impending competitive exam, checking out university info on the net. Where is the interaction here? There is interaction in all the places, but, with people who are everywhere but right near them.
These days, everyone seems to prefer blogging their thoughts into the net to sharing it with the person sitting right next to him/her. I have been a victim of this myself at college, where SMS'ing was a rage. It was a time when people wouldn't get sleep if they dint complete the 100 sms quota of that day :) A person not roaming around sms'ing was considered an outlaw :) When walking with 2 of your friends, you walk sms'ing a 3rd friend and when he also joins you in person, talk to the three of them while sms'ing a 4th person. :) Thank god, i realised what i was doing and now i have a plan in which sms costs 1 re while call costs 50p :)
Even in home's most of the interaction is about the TV serial episode that one of them missed due to some other activity or a fight for viewing their favorite program. Hasn't our sub conscious mind adopted it as being natural? I wasn't a big fan of cutting 'cable TV' (atleast that's what they call it in my small town) when it was a fashion for parent's to do that when their child got nearer to board exams. I also couldn't help but be a vitim of that phenomenon when i was near class 10 board exams, for around 2 months. It was the time when tehelka.com sting operation was making big news. Sure, i missed all that excitement. But, i must admit, it was indeed good. We got a lot of time for each other in the family and after some time, it wasn't actually difficult.
My college life was beautiful mainly due to the hostel life and I would attribute the success of our hostel life, partly, to the lack of TV and Internet in the hostel. Had those been there, the amount of time we took to develop our bond's would have been surely eaten away by Jodi No1, crorepati, orkut and other website's I dare mention in my personal blog :)
Coming back to the scene of thought, the sociologist attributed the increased access of virtual internet world to the lack of bonding in the real world. I am not here to attest her claim, I am merely trying to correlate her views with my observations. It s good to share our thoughts on the web and reaching out to the world, but, we must also take care to see that we don't neglect our real world relations. If we realize this and take time to switch off our laptop's, TV's, Mobiles every now and then and sit and talk with those, whom we live with, don't u think the world would be a much more beautiful place?
3 comments:
Good post! But I wouldn't agree with you. Simply because, we have more friends and acquaintances now than our dads and moms some twenty years back. And it requires more time and effort to keep in touch with everyone. Social networking is very useful for it. If not for sites like Orkut, Facebook, etc I wouldn't know what is happening in my friend's (who is some 1000s of miles away) life and take part in her happiness and sorrow. Though I accept that the interaction with people near us is lesser, it hasn't stopped/reduced to a great extent. Rather, we get to give our time for more people and hence more happiness. This is a boon for this generation only. But some people use these sites stupidly(I can't find any other word!) and that is to be condemned! Otherwise, I think the social network sites (and anything else for that matter!) are based on how we use it. Using it well is in our hands :)
PS: Guess this comment is long enough to be a post of its own. Try checking my blog after a few days. I'm sure gonna write about this one.
@ alpine path
I don't quite understand in what point we both disagree :) I never said social networking is bad. I am an ardent orkut guy myself.
My point was that, we should also try to be in the real world as much as we are in the virtual world. (Husband and wife)/friends sitting in next room and exchanging orkut scraps fail to make sense with me, that s abt it :)
If I am still in touch with my 1st std friends, it s because of this and i dare say social networking is bad in a google blogger :)
Anyways, thanks for the comments :)
//it was a time when people wouldn't get sleep if they dint complete the 100 sms quota of that day :) A person not roaming around sms'ing was considered an outlaw :) //
Ha ha ha :)... Gone r d days :)
Post a Comment