This may sound or seem completely opposite of what I wrote in my earlier blog a few months back, but at times I’m really confused about the means of communication we have & we use today. They have evolved from pigeons, letters, telegrams, telephones, mobiles, e-mails, text messaging, online chats to time-to-time updated status messages. The more we get, the more we tend to use them.
A few people I know keep updating their status
every 10 minutes. Did this – did that – watching movie – interval – popcorns – enjoying
cruise ride in River Nile – jogging & doing exercise up here on hanuman
tekdi (a small hill in Pune city) – hand fractured – having chocolate cake –
finally managed to do chapaatees today – bla-bla-bla……. & they
think they are communicating so well with their so called friends &
relatives! Surprisingly, they get bunch of comments in next 5 minutes as well! Huh!!
(Sigh!!)
It’s good in a way that the modern technology is
helping us to stay in touch with our loved ones… one can talk to them… one can
see them smile / laugh as if they are right there in front… one can see the
grand-children crawl-walk-grow-play…! It’s just a matter of one click… ride the
mouse and it’s actually a small world to wander and roam around! But unfortunately
the definition of ‘communication’ itself has changed! As far as I remember,
about 15 years ago, communication meant conveying thoughts through words or
expressions… or give-n-take of thoughts containing some value (exceptions were
always there like gossips & conversation having lot of nuisance value
etc.). Mobile phone was not a child’s play & sending e-mails was supposed
to be luxurious way of communicating in detail. ‘How are you?’ was spelled as
‘How are you?’, ‘Mother-in-Law’ was spelled as ‘Mother-in-Law’ &
‘Father-in-Law’ was spelled as ‘Father-in-Law’. Now-a-days the scene is
different! ‘How are you?’ has become ‘h r u’, ‘Mother-in-Law’ has become ‘mil’
& ‘Father-in-Law’ has become ‘fil’. Abbreviations are good to remember but
at times I wonder ‘why the word ABBREVIATION itself is so long!’
Jokes apart… it actually upsets me when a friend
of mine puts her status message as ‘expecting a baby in Jan. 2013’ (with the
date & tentative time as well!) on a social networking site. A Social Networking Site??!!! Is it a mean of communication (read
over-communication). or rather a ‘mean’ communication? Furthermore, to my
surprise, all her ‘fb’ friends (including her mother) comment on it &
congratulate the couple for the good news! Huh!! (Sigh again!!)
I still believe that it’s a different joy for a
father when he rushes towards the hospital to see his wife & the new born
baby. The anxiousness & eager that pulls him with a full force cannot be
expressed in words. Versa vise, the feeling that he would have seeing the
baby’s picture on his blackberry or i-phone ..... and then seeing it in the
hospital after some time. I’m sure it’s not the same as it has to be - ideally.
Some such news should be a tight-packed surprise & not a glass box that
doesn’t make a person curious any more.
I’m afraid the time shall appear when someone
will share a video of his father or mother on death-bed to let people know how
his folks died, and people would send their condolences online. Is that the
future where the latest technology is leading us to?
This may sound a bit weird but the way people
are using the technology and these social networking sites today, the future of
‘communication’ seems to be hanging.
Isn’t it time to think and follow the correct
means of communication?
Regards
- Abhijit
