Technologically close,socially away

The greatest marvel of the 21^st century is always referred to as the ‘technological advancement’ we have made. The penetration of technology in most spheres of life has created impeccable effects in the way we perceive life. Be it biotechnological advances, molecular engineering, robotics etc. No field is virgin as far as the technological involvement is concerned. It has not only made life simpler in most forms but also has reduced the physical efforts put in to perform certain tasks.

But every advantage is associated with every disadvantage. Technological advancement did have an adverse effect on the social pattern that existed before. The invention of television brought in a new wave of entertainment. One can see an interesting mix of social pattern that were associated with the popularity of television. Initially, when colour television was a highlight in some select few homes, there was a tradition of families getting together to watch serials like Ramayana and Mahabharata. It was great to see families sit together and watch television together but on the other hand, there is this inevitable fact that roads used to be comparatively empty during the screening of these ‘epic’ serials.  People used to avoid visiting each other as the new found interest kept them busy…..this went on to become a regular social pattern where television broadcasting dictated the visit timings.  

The act of wishing one on his or her birthday exemplifies the fact even more. There has been a drastic change in the way people wished each other during birthdays. Earlier / during one’s college days, friends crowd to each other’s place to wish on someone’s birthday. There used to be a personal diary where one noted everybody’s birthday. As many social networking sites surfaced, the charm of wishing got deteriorated. Physically going and wishing took a backseat as people started simply calling each other on birthdays. This later changed to a Short Messaging Service aka ‘sms’. Now a person receiving  sms from his friends on his birthday feels ‘content’ with the medium of wish. Some are content merely by receiving scraps or posts on their networking profiles. This is true even when people are in the same city, perhaps in the same neighborhood. This signifies the manner in which we now value or undervalue the importance of not socializing. Technology has indeed changed the way we socialize.

Many festivals are celebrated online. Forwarding a mere picture depicting til-gul ( a traditional Marathi sweet exchanged on the occasion of Makar Sankranti) is considered as a wish. Concept of e-greetings, e-rakhi, e-diwali is popular. Smses and scraps have taken over as the new ‘personalized’ versions of wishes. Though it may seem personal, but it doesn’t carry the charm of a hand written letter/ greeting card/ handshake/hug. Though these forms of communication is much more viable where distances are concerned, but the tendency to simply sms or scrap someone where he/she can meet him is getting imbibed in people.

The technological inventions like telephones, internet, mobiles gives us the luxury to be immobile, thus making us lethargic. I am not against the use of technology, it has taken us to unreachable dimensions, but also at a cost of reachable distances.

Internet can also be looked at as a major medium of socially discommunicating people. Concept of making friends online, finding love online are gaining momentum with each passing day. One website even boasts of buying friends online to make your profile look popular. More the number of friends on a person’s social friend list, more social is the person ‘virtually’. He/she may have not met those people, but they command their presence in their friend list. I often wonder how can anyone buy and sell friends? Companies are making a joke of befriending and shunning people.

A person is becoming virtually active, but socially passive. We are communicating well virtually but less socially. As punchline of Nokia says, ‘connecting people’. That holds true to a large extent but on the other hand, I feel we are ‘technologically close, but socially far away’.