As a child, I used to wake up to the alarm of an analog clock. Now, like every other person, I wake up to a selected song playing on my mobile phone. What’s more? If I feel sleepy, I snooze and sleep a little longer. How convenient? A feature not available on the analog clocks and probably that’s why they were more effective in waking us up. This way without realizing we have grown intimate with electronics around us. Our personal computers, MP3 players, mobile phones mean much more than real people. We share our most happiest and saddest moments with our personal electronics. We turn to our iPods to cheer us up when we feel down.
These changes mean a lot to the human race more than we care to acknowledge because these have already begun to dictate our behavior, social interaction and expression. For example, many abbreviations have become a part of our verbal vocabulary like FYI, BTW. We often hear our earlier generations complaining of shrinking social boundaries. We hardly know or interact with our neighbors. We, in-fact, prefer to use the leisure time to listen to songs on our iPods or network on ‘social networking’ sites (unless the neighbor is some very hot girl). The definition of ‘Social’ is changing by the day. Our neighbors no longer by default become our friends just because we stay close by, as it used to be in our childhood. We choose our friends. We choose who we want to be close to. Now, the question. Is this good or bad?
This is good because it gives us a choice. This is dangerous because it restricts our interaction to similar minded people of the same profession of the same age resulting in a very narrow perspective about things.
With the advent of the personal electronic devices we are increasingly giving importance to privacy. We prefer talking to friends on mobile phones in private than participating in a family discussion.
We have also become dependent on these devices and they have begun to determine our mood. Imagine your computer crashes or you lose your mobile phone. You start to feel lonely and are depressed till that problem is fixed. Does this mean we have started to react to devices emotionally?
Apart from all these, these personal electronic devices have induced a sense of competition and craving to own them. With many companies releasing newer better products by the month, the craving is only increasing.
I wonder if using these devices for a long time will bring about changes in the human anatomy too. I am talking evolution here.
To sum it up, the personal electronics have begun to change the dynamics of individuals and society. If too many changes happen, then probably our children and grandchildren will read about the “Personal Electronics’ Revolution” like we did about the “Industrial Revolution.” While all the changes are being welcomed in the name of change and modernization, it would only be wise to understand and estimate the impact and the repercussions before giving in to them.
