We live in an era where we are inundated with information. The world is within us. Global News is just a click away. We are mentally and emotionally attached to the external world but leaving behind our social integration and social relationships. We are circled with gadgets, smartphones, laptops, television sets, radio sets, and whatnot. I most of the times feel programmed; so many machines are rounding near my head. These constant bings and tings had made me forget I have a life too. But I hardly can do anything about it.
Technology has snatched us the very basic human rationale. We think a lot but do nothing. Our action doesn’t match our words. Where are we heading to? But should we blame technology for this? Would that be unfair? Yes, it would be unfair. I believe the technology was never made to drive us apart. It was solely made to make our lives easy and comfortable. Sherry Turtle says, technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities, and as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed. Technology will always reciprocate how we will make use of it.
There is a famous Jewish writer and historian, Yuval Noah Harari; he says we can fight exploitation but not irrelevance. Even in such an advanced digital age, he doesn’t own a smartphone. But he never advises people to be away from smartphones but cautions to use them wisely. Technology has raised our way of living and thinking too. We are able to reach to the moon, we are well versed with the different languages, we understand every culture, tradition, and rituals still reel cannot replace real. Amid all the comfort, information, convenience, progress it provides, it still cannot replace the real world, real people and real conversations.
We must understand the term use and overuse. We are the humans – the most superior race God created and bestowed with a mind which gives us the power to think and rethink, to choose and to discard, to question and answer. We must use our own abilities to overcome technological addiction. Bidding adieu to technology or calling it a monster is no solution but wise use of it can definitely make our life lively.
