I have been party to numerous discussions both within my family and friends as to how technology, especially social media via cellular phone is leading to social isolation and alienation.
The argument goes to the predictable trajectory of "loss of touch with reality" as people are invariably besotted and glued to a virtual world. My line of thought is that technology in itself isn't so disruptive as our own behavioural adaptation towards it is. So I reluctantly and partially accept the standard argument but not absolutely.
Rewind the age to two decades, and you realise that no other technology has disrupted our social functioning as much as the telly has. The 80s is the era when TV made its foray into the Indian drawing room and subsequently into the privacy of the bedroom(s). Initially, there was a plethora of hiccups - speculation and apprehension about its potential ill effects towards human health, especially towards the eyes. There would be heated discussions ranging from the distance from which to watch it to whether one could watch it in absolute darkness blah blah. And yet no one even in their wildest of imagination could think that TV would alter our social life irreversibly.
Yet not only did it survive without an iota of criticism, but surreptitiously ended up hijacking the basic architecture & aesthetics of the drawing room as well as the bedroom so much so that it became the centre of attraction of these rooms and everything around it simply complimented its very existence.
Steadily along with it, it managed to destroy the social fabric of our behaviour too. Let me elucidate - Indian families no longer needed to sit together as an entity and pamper the grand-dads and moms with their incessant storytelling! Slowly the custom of sitting together for a meal was even phased out. Well for a while, at least Indian families gathered together as a team to watch the cricket matches or the Indian epics, but that was an exception to the new rule, not an established norm.
A New World Order had established itself, oblivious to the very people whose fancy it had gained sway. As families grew affluent, they invested in multiple tellies which crept into the bedrooms, usurping the highlighting walls of the mundane calendars and other paraphernalia. It even questioned the existence of the very dinner tables in most homes as people would find it inconvenient to sit around a table and eat when they could simply watch telly either huddled in micro groups or as a solitary viewer on the couch or in the comfort of their bedrooms.
This was the moment of truth for us to have protested and reclaimed our lives. Yet, without a fight, we relinquished our core ideas to "the box". Without so much as rightful self-introspection let alone outrage or moral high-grounding.
When I compare the complicity of the telly, I can't help wondering at the power bestowed on our nimble fingers. The "new technology" has unleashed a formidable force of our imagination like no other technology has or will. It has made us more aware of our surroundings and social cohesiveness. I find it more as a disrupter of the status quo of the telly: a modern-day Kalki - the saviour of our current ills. It to me is simply an extension of my real world.
At this point of my diatribe, I can't resist quoting a popular professor from my medical days, who, when talking about medicines(drugs), had this to say - " if it doesn't have side effects, it won't probably work". This aphorism can't be more true for technology.
Another granddaddy of medical science belonging to the golden Greek ages, Galen, stated in a similar vein "It's the intent of the use of a substance that makes it a poison or drug". Without giving a micro-explanation, my stance on the advent of current technology draws heavily from the philosophy behind these two aphorisms.
Perhaps, we should provide the necessary optimal conditions to technology in such a fashion as to witness the emergence of either the butterfly or moth after moulting of the larvae into a caterpillar! I, hereby, rest my case!
