By Aravind Deepak:
Throughout history’s timeline, people have been subjected to scenarios where they’ve been forced to adapt; some were adaptations that the public quaffed into their lifestyle for its sheer greatness while others were seen as the very reason for our seemingly degenerative acts of cruelty. What is the latest adaptation of mankind? Who is the benevolent guardian who works round the clock and still finds time to be with us throughout our life’s crucial moments.
Your mom? No! The Internet!
The internet and its virtual sidekick- the social media, always greet us with their arms wide open and, for some reason, never seem to let go. Albeit being considered as a permanent refuge by many throughout the world, I often find myself suffocated by its tight embrace.
Social media has brought people close to each other, closer than is possible by any other entity. Following, liking and sharing people’s post can be fun, right? But when you literally start living to serve social media, now that, my friend, is when you become a live example of a ‘dead soul in a living body’.
That what appears to have made the world a smaller place have, in actuality, created a chasm whose depth knows no bounds. People are finding it difficult to socialize and it won’t take long before the act of conversing in person takes a commendable position in the list of things found most terrifying by the common public. When a random user likes your post, that obnoxious sense of pride kicks in and you’re good to go. The more you are accepted by the internet community, the better you feel your day will be.
I’m in no position to campaign against this notion; I hold no authority to challenge the suzerainty of your mind (oh, how I wish). But I really don’t understand how people consider spending time with anonymous groups to be a better pastime than the ones spent with their loved ones. The internet has its own serving of dedicated sycophants which makes it almost impossible to pick out the actual admirers, let alone the worthy ones.
This is where people often lash out by stating that it is with their very own family members that they are connected through the internet; how can that be bad, right? Well, thanks to many website’s uniform layout and tidy little widgets, no matter how intense a person’s reaction to a post is, it is always presented in the same eerie fashion of similarity. No amount of virtual love can compensate for its realistic counterpart.
Why do people prefer the internet then? One reason can be attributed to fact that people have had enough. They’ve had enough running behind their beloved ones, often being subject to the scary enough side effects of their hormone driven drama and mood swings. Everyone around them seems complex and even their actions don’t appear to differ from that notion. Nobody wants to get hurt, especially when the source of that pain comes from broken relationships. Yet, people constantly put themselves in such situations, trying in vain to scramble back to a peaceful, unperturbed existence.
What all the people, who find such practices tiring and meaningless, should understand is that this is what life is about. Besides, in what other way can life be lived to the fullest if there is no position of success to strive for.
After closely observing the way people live today, I won’t be surprised if the government promulgates the act of showing love or compassion to, at least, our family members. But then again, these are not feelings that can be forced out of people’s conscience; it has to come from deep within. The level of detachment among the common public both shocks and saddens me. Let us hope not to be taken to a world where one is asked to pay rent to their own mother for staying nine whole months in her womb.