By Atul Rawat
There is a new reality around us. Everyone is always connected digitally – mobile phone, laptop, desktop, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp – you name it, there is no end to it. Elders, the middle-aged, Gen Z, children and now even infants are also always connected. This connection transcends all barriers of caste, creed, rich, poor, male, female – there is no segment of the humankind left.
It makes one wonder that in this digital connect the soul has got earthed. Emotions have gone into Airplane Mode.
Human being are able to connect with another person across continents and even in outer space while remaining blissfully disconnected with the person sitting next to you.
With wearable devices, there is no getting away for even a fraction of a second. It may not be distant when a chip embedded in the body will do all the interaction but not the soul or the emotions.
Modern family gatherings are the best place to witness this phenomenon. There may be twenty people in the room, but each one will be busy with their own devices. There is very little interaction as one is busy with their pods connected to their device. Everyone is busy reacting to the next WhatsApp message received on their device – good morning, emoji, welcome, good bye, birthday, anniversary, photos – one cannot miss anything.
A grandmother sends a motivational quote to her grandson sitting three feet away. The grandson reacts with a heart emoji instead of speaking.
Our relationship is now powered by the Wi-Fi. Human emotions have become technological. The urge to check the notification in a middle of any human activity is over powering. During conversation, during a bus ride, in the café, a movie hall, in the toilet – the urge is simply overpowering. Romantic dinner outings are now at the care of our device. It is not uncommon to see friends and couples siting in restaurants staring lovingly……at separate screens.
“Babe check your phone… I sent you a meme.”
An emoji conveys my feelings digitally, without feeling any of the emotions connected with the emoji. Some time ago, human emotions required elaborate prose, holding hands, an embrace, a shake of the hand to convey emotions – not today. We have emotionless emojis to digitally convey emotions which we don’t even feel.
It is now just an emotional theatre, perpetuated by the social media. Even sadness must now be aesthetically pleasing. We do not even feel grief naturally.
Parents are proud of their children who are connected to thousands of followers who are strangers – we do not know their IDs are for real or are fake – but are physically disconnected with their parents.
Our conversation on the dinner table has evolved from “How was school?” to “How many followers did your dance video get?”
In the middle of my conversation with my friend in a café his phone vibrates, his hand moves automatically, and our conversation with an actual human being dies along with the emotions associated with it.
We carry the entire world in our pocket, ready for instant access. We can reach anyone, anywhere, anytime. Yet loneliness has become one of the defining emotions of modern life. We have followers but I am not sure if there is friendship there.
We are communicating all the time but what about a genuine conversation? There is no time for that. Have our emotions gone into the digital garbage bin?
Perhaps it is time to press “Restore”.
(Psssttt, my wife just sent me a notification – I better reply or else…)
