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To have a connection in every aspect of life is crucial
nowadays; I remember in the era before text, emails messages and social
networking, when physical interaction is the most direct form of communication.
“Through Tech & Thin” we are connected 24/7. Messages come and go every
second. My #BlackBerry, BBM, Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, Emails and all other
apps available in my mobile phone that’s Peeping or Pinging a round of a clock.
From the least to the most of what’s happening whereabouts of the friends I've known are all stated through that blinking red holster from my mobile phone. When
meeting friends; nothing much to share and to talk with then I wondered “why we
have to make an effort to meet up?” where it leaves us very little to say and
the saddest part we’re still glued to our mobile phones.
The depressing part is this, when I wake up in the morning
the first thing I do is check my BlackBerry which lies next to me in my bed,
and if the red light doesn’t blink and I don’t have a couple of emails, a
number of facebook notifications & likes, a facebook inbox message, seven
or eight Whatsapp chats and five BBM chats at least I feel sad and unloved.
Well, that’s exaggerated but you get what I mean. I feel down. It’s sad that we
reached to a point where we measure our popularity and the care of other people
by the number of messages we receive that don’t really say much and the number
of facebook friends we have that we don’t really know instead of the quality
time we spent with friends talking, goofing around, joking and just having fun.
All that communication is known as the social network; is
raising a generation of antisocial beings that have no clue how to really
connect. Lately when I meet up with friends and I’m talking about something or
the other my friend would pick up her/his cell phone numerous times to reply to
a blackberry messenger chat, What’s App or text, or post something on facebook
or tweet another useless line. What’s even weirder is if it’s not a cell phone
in hand it’s iPod headphones in the ear. I am sure you had some sort of
conversation while you or the other person had your headphones plugged in. How
is that social? For all my friends reading this right now I confess that I am
guilty of the same charges. To give you a visual, imagine you and your friend
are sitting at your kitchen table having a chat. Your friend gets up 4 times
and leaves the kitchen for 30 seconds and comes back in. After the 4th time I
am sure you had enough and will not finish whatever you were saying even if
your friend begged you to. It’s pretty much the same thing with a cell phone,
your friend is typing something and in those 10 or 15 seconds he/she is not
really there.
What’s more and which is sort of funny, I know some people
very well. I know their favorite color, animal, food and even their sleeping
habits and what they are scared of. I know what they do everyday and even their
friends. But you know what! I never met them in my life. They don’t know that I
exist. They invite you to their life, you see what they do everyday. They talk
directly to you. After a while you get to know them really well. They become
part of your life because you watch them everyday. They might even be a
substitute to friends. I know YouTube is awesome and that it is a huge
community but I also think that it encourages anti-social behavior.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that this technology keeps
us connected. I would not give up my blackberry, iPod, or laptop voluntarily
but I miss the days when my friends and I had a long chat that lasted for hours
with no distractions, where we were 100% there. I would love to go out with
friends and just have fun instead of pausing to take 20 photos of us posing to
take that one perfect picture to upload on facebook or posting 140 characters
about us on twitter. I wish I could leave the house without my cell phone or
iPod without feeling naked. I’d like to read a whole page in a book before
checking my Blackberry because the red little light started blinking again.
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