I have seen lot of people recently asking me about my
whereabouts. And I wonder in amazement …..Have I stopped socialising or meeting
people? Or is it that I have stopped being chatty? or Do I forget to greet people
when I see them? What has changed? And Then I hear them reveal the ethical duty
that I have missed to perform assiduously – “I have not been so active on the
What’s App group and no Instagram yet and blah blah blah.”
This may sound a bit discourteous but frankly I do see see
myself saying “ Ah! A sigh of relief. It’s
not my physical presence or actions that are missing. It’s actually my virtual
presence on the social media group that is being talked about.”
Honestly, no matter how much I despise being very diligent
on What’s App, I can’t deny that it has made life simpler, people more
accessible and communication faster. I know I am in touch with more folks because
I have What’s App. It’s so much more effortless to organise my daughter’s
birthday party as there is this facility of What’s App groups.
My only concern here is that are we really socialising here?
What happened to those personalised invitations? To the birthday wishes that were given in
person or to those calls that you made to thank someone. I see more images of
those feelings on my phone than actually sensing the sentiment individually.
Have we not started doing some formalities more than ever
only because it’s so easy to write a thank you on What’s App and haven’t we
started shrinking from genuine efforts only because a sorry on What’s App is less
difficult?
Are we not missing out on something? Sharing on What’s App sounds
cool to me but caring? Really? Is that going to replace our way of bonding and
demonstration of our feelings ?
A message embellished with emoticons, with smileys, with LOL
is considered PERSONALISED. Texting has replaced letters; visuals have replaced
reading and the Emojis have replaced expressions. It doesn’t surpise me when my children prefer
to learn on YouTube than reading a book.
I am still the old intellectual tradition. I still feel that
I remember things more when I touch them, read them and feel them. I still haven’t
progressed to a Kindle. I must admit I still like to pick up a thick book to
read no matter how inconvenient it may sound to a few. I still have a birthday card given to me by my parents and
I can tell you it is so precious to me that I keep checking on it. And opening
and closing it again and again gives me such satisfaction which I can’t really
put in words.
I have my college scrapbooks and hard copies of the photographs
organised in albums. I love posting pictures on Facebook but I still make an
effort to take prints of them. Flipping the album is a very different feeling. Happiness found again.
The other day I was asked by my sister as to why I hardly wished
our relatives on the family group? “ It sounds a bit rude, you know.”She
mentioned. Candidly, I thought to myself
and realised that I am happy to be a part of this group on which I actively
participate but only for those things for which I don’t feel the need to call
one on one. I still try to make time to personally give a ring if I can. That
sounds real. When I meet them after months I have memories of my last call and
not my last text. And I truly like that.
One interesting observation that I always love to make when I
post a picture on facebook. It’s
amusing. I get at least 100 likes if it’s a photograph but when I post something
otherwise I hardly manage a few. (Gosh! I just found myself looking for a sad
emoji and realised this is not FB or Whats app…Hahahaha!)
Interestingly, I just googled “personalised calls vis-a-vis What’s
App” and it doesn’t surprise me what Google found out for me” 7 whats app settings to personalise” That’s
the most ironic thing I have read and indeed most hilarious.
Anyways my point is that even though we are progressing to a
visually driven world in this Tech savvy era, these punctuated and decorated
messages can never replace a face to face conversation, our moods, our emotions
in our voice. Let us use this technology for less important things because as
human beings we can use our own emotions to express more intelligently than
computerised icons.
Let’s build relationships even though fewer and not chat
histories.
