It is hard to imagine living without
gadget and internet connection nowadays. Laptop/Tablet, BlackBerry, SmartPhone,
with all chatting application attached, : BlackBerry Messenger, LINE, Yahoo
Messenger, Whatssap!, Skype, not to mention the social media app : facebook,
twitter, Instagram or Flickr to share your photos, MySpace, and any other
communication tools to keep us stay connected to the world, news corner to keep
us updated : CNN online, streaming
TV channels, etc. We even have E-book for our reading pleasure. As if we would
not need any one to fulfill your needs of information and entertainment. All is
available in a gadget. Life is at hand.
Ironically even we have a Bible
application in our gadget we don’t open / read it every day. It only helps us
not to carry the heavy Bible to the church, and (frankly speaking) it caused me
too lazy to make a sermon notes. I open my Bible in my gadget, and while
listening to the sermon I also respond incoming emails or any communication
appear. Did you do the same thing like me? Answer to yourself! (big smile).
Gadget presents itself to substitute almost anything that we used to do manually
or by interacting with others. This may be an addition to ‘what so called’ a modern
life and being a cause of growing obsession of gadget.
This also is causing a change and affect in human relations,
habit and behavior. Human interactions changed into virtual relations,
Christmas Cards, Season greetings changed to mass text messages, mass emails or
shared statuses on facebook, nothing personal anymore, well, I hope that the
love and care expressed through those are remain genuine. A family dinner turns
out to a quiet moment while each of family member focusing on their own gadget
at hand, a relationship is harder now because conversations became texting,
arguments became phone calls, feelings became subliminal messages online, and
love expressions substituted by statuses on facebook .
We don’t
have a family photo album anymore since all have been posted on facebook and
every friend could view it online. And, tell you the truth I hate
when in occasions I see my friend attends more to his/her gadget than talking
to me, or where they should
have focused on one-on-one communication. Are you familiar to this kind of situation too, that your friend (or,
simply yourself) intermittent look at gadget and leave you hanging talk to yourself,
checking on recent updates every second, open email button every time even
there’s no incoming email, or view photos in Instagram even when there is no
new photos uploaded?.
We have seen it all. The girl who keeps
bumping into people while texting, that man shouting over his cell phone in a
crowded place, and the kid next to you with his portable device blaring. Groan.
How rude!. But wait, haven't we ourselves been guilty of these offences at some
time or other? Or worse, we have been texting while driving and burying our
noses in our SmartPhones in the presence of family members or guests at the
dinner table. Admit it. Everyone is guilty of not minding their mobile manners.
Do you ever remember living in early 80’s
or 90’s? I grew up in those years. We had no mobile phone, no internet, but we
always managed to find each other, always managed to stick to appointments and
enjoyed togetherness in real friendship, yes we have real friends, not just
‘virtual’ friends on facebook or follower in Twitter. Its because real friendship
or relationship are something more than just followers on Twitter or friends in
facebook.
Technology is made to be a part of our lives, to make it easier,
more efficient, and more enjoyable. Gadgets, as we call them ... all do one
thing. They communicate at light speed, well, darn close, pretty soon. We can
talk to one another, and figure each other out, in an environment where we
don't get right in front of us. But, to see how we use it nowadays, the purpose
is being lost here. Something that is supposed to save our time has become a
thing that takes up most of our time. We’ve been start losing social skills as
we “hide” behind these gadgets. We almost lose touch with reality.
Hopefully we will learn how to use these wisely, meaningfully and
utilize the time we save to achieve bigger goals.
Note : This thought came up when for almost
2 weeks I live “with no SmartPhone” (big smile) cause little trouble made it ‘stayed’
in its service center, yes I still have my laptop cause I use it for unfinished
work that I bring it home, 2 weeks with no gadget and my life is just FINE. I’ll
be always okay coz God knows where I am and my life is at HIS hand, hahahahaaaa
…. and Kiki knows where to contact me, and that’s ……. enough for me. (big
joyful smile)
