Few months back I had visited
one of my friends from my native village after a gap of 5 years along with my
son. It was a festival day and I had fixed an appointment with my friend before
few days of the proposed visit. We reached his home at the fixed time and he
and his family members warmly welcomed us. His old parents and wife fondly enquired about my family, job etc and were very happy with our visit. His wife
offered us delicious sweets and went to the kitchen to make tea. My friend and
I started sharing about developments of our lives and there started the
continuous interruption of mobile calls from his friends and colleagues. All
were conveying festival greetings and somehow I got nearly 10 minutes to talk to
him out of my one hour presence in his home. While returning, with a
disappointed face I said to my son, “Now I realize the other side of conveying
festival greetings over mobile” .To this my son said, “You are not much different
from your friend; It’s good you have realized it now.”
Mobiles phone have
revolutionized the life style in the 21st century and plays a
crucial role in bringing developments in the life of people in many ways. But
at the same time, the recent trend in using smart phones by the common man and
the so called educated persons is a matter of grave concern for the society.
Gradually, most of the members of the society are becoming too much self-
centered and characters of togetherness and humankind is disappearing from many
people. With the excessive use of the device of communication, the
communication within the family members at home has been decreasing
drastically. Even family lunch and dinner hours witness members engaged to
mobile phones at one hand and food at the other hand. The concepts of family
tours and vacation trips have also changed. Instead of having interaction and
good time with the group members; everyone gets engaged with their smart
phones. Whenever persons visit a new place, the first thing they do is clicking
of their ‘selfies’ and uploading them immediately in the social media. Enjoying
the beauty of the places and learning about the people, cultures etc of the
place are completely forgotten concepts now.
The inappropriate use of smart
phones also affects the work culture in offices. Many employees are getting
addicted to the use of online games and social networks such as WhatsApp,
Facebook etc during office hours and their attention gets distracted away from the
works. Even many officers keep snooping on their smart phones during public interviews
& official discussions. Situations in schools where values are inculcated
on children are no different. Students found using mobile phones inside the
school campus are punished but many teachers continue to use their mobiles even
inside the class rooms without any guilty.
The adverse effects of the
excess and unsystematic use of smart phones and the social media would bring
great harm to the society as it would gradually change the attitude of people
towards life and the fellow human beings. We may not realize the impacts of it
immediately but within a decade we may be living in a virtual world which is
far away from reality. I am not saying that one should completely keep away
from the use of smart phones and the social media. All we need to do is use
them with proper schedule without affecting our commitments to family,
employers and the society.
