Ah!! Those Gadgets

People around me are obsessed with gadgets. Cell phones, iphones, iPods, mp3, video games… the list is endless. Gone are the days when people would build a conversation with fellow passengers during a train or bus journey. Now anyone who begins a conversation is considered a nuisance. We have let our love for gadgets kill the goodness of the human spirit. When two people talk continuously during a bus journey, the other passengers start getting their earphones to shut themselves out. They don’t realize that the bacteria earphones can bring into their ears, are far more harmful that the cacophony of fellow humans. It’s pathetic to watch the children of this era. It used to be common to find children in a super market or circus holding hands and giggling, despite inability to understand each other’s language. These days when a child stretches out his hand to another, I see parents pull him away and entertain him using games on their iPod. Can the sounds and visuals on the iPod ever replace the warmth of a human smile and touch?


Also gadgets have made us an impatient generation. Everything at the touch of a button, that’s the rule of the thumb. But most things are best relished when received after a wait. Nature offers nothing instantly, neither rain nor food, nor flowers nor off-springs. The waiting doubles the joy of receiving. But look at us, if you dial the number of a dear one and the recorded voice says ‘The number you have dialed is not reachable’, panic strikes us. If we forget our mobile phones at home, we feel like fish out of water and those that dial our number think we have been kidnapped! If you are introduced to a new person in the office one day, the very next day he wants to be your friend on FaceBook. We go ahead and accept the friend’s request and never drop a line to him for the rest of our lives. Friendships that last a life time most often take a life time to build. STOP AND THINK. We are becoming a rude, discourteous, in-different and impatient generation by clinging on to our gadgets.

Mark a day of the week as ‘No sms’ day, Mark a day of the week as ‘No iPod day’, Deliberately leave your earphones at home one day of the week. Mark a day of the week as ‘Two-minute phone conversations only’ day. Mark a day of the week as ‘No TV’ day. Sit down and write your dear friend a letter, not an email or sms, but a real hand written letter. For when he receives it, he will first sit down, and read it, and then re-read it and then preserve it.