Daily Times

A few days ago, I was exchanging messages with a friend, when suddenly he had to go somewhere. Since when had going anywhere interfered with our communication capabilities, I wondered.

Certainly, everyone is somewhere at any given time, and yet, I know exactly where, with whom, and what everyone’s comments are in any situation. During this particular moment, however, my counterpart abruptly ended our conversation with the abbreviation ‘BRB.’ I nearly failed to decipher this ancient code.

For those of you who have forgotten the time when we were not connected every second of the day, ‘BRB’ meant ‘Be right back.’ It is from an age when it was considered alright to disconnect.

In those days, it was considered normal, even encouraged, to eat one’s blueberry oatmeal without posting its photos. Nowadays, one almost never comes across this phrase because one cannot ‘be right back’. We literally have to ‘be right there’ all the time or else face the music.

Consider this for a second. There is almost nothing in this world that a person apologises for more than missing someone’s call. We even apologise for things that are in no way our fault.

I highly doubt that back in the day, people started their letters with, “Sorry, I missed your letter, I was ploughing the fields.” When a person sent a letter, which was usually well-written, well-thought out and grammatically correct, the receiver read it at his or her earliest convenience and responded in due time. People were patient.

Now, sadly, messages consist of some informal slang to which we are expected to promptly reply or risk a remorseful apology. The dreaded double-tick-marks that signal a message has been read usually indicate that the count-down has begun.

People are now dependent on their cell phones to a fault. The primary factors behind this phenomenon are an abundance and affordability of smartphones, faster internet, and ingeniously designed applications. In fact, one study found that the average person spent 530 hours on WhatsApp alone last year. That is almost three whole weeks’ time.

It is worth noticing that the three most commonly used applications — WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook — are all free. Yet, their parent companies are worth more than the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of entire nations. Since their revenues depend solely on our dependence on their products, these companies go through great pains to keep us glued to our screens.

All this has come at a cost. At first, doctors began to notice numerous cases of tendonitis in people’s thumbs because of excessive texting. Chiropractors began to notice debilitating effects on our posture, specifically the neck region, from too much time spent looking down on a phone.

Social scientists too are now beginning to take notice of many adverse effects. Take birthday parties for an example. Back in the day, the best part of any birthday was the cake. It did not necessarily always look like much, but somehow always tasted better than regular cakes

With the advent of the ‘front camera’, psychologists coined a new mental disorder called ‘Selfitis’ which indicates taking and posting too many ‘selfies’ on social media. Have you ever felt your phone ringing in your pocket, even though it was not in fact ringing? This could indicate the presence of what has come to be called ‘Phantom Vibration Syndrome’.

Social scientists too are now beginning to take notice of many adverse effects. Take for example, birthday parties. Back in the day, the best part of any birthday was the cake. It did not necessarily always look like much, but somehow always tasted better than regular cake.

Now, on the other hand, cakes are not eaten, but unveiled. They are bigger, brighter, and bolder, all in an effort to please people on the internet. As a result, these cakes taste like semi-sweet wet cardboard due to the blankets of fondant they are sculpted with.

As soon as the candles get lit, moreover, everyone has their phones out because the horror of missing an opportunity to take a photo of a cake makes them anxious. These photos are then compulsively posted on Facebook mere moments later.

They are then appreciated with ‘likes’ which subsequently increases the happiness of the person who posted the pictures. After seeing the photos, other viewers realise that they are missing out, and get something called ‘FOMO’ which makes them feel depressed.

We now see the world through the eyes of our phones. We evaluate people, objects, and foods not by our senses but by how our phones and the applications we use will perceive these things.

We cannot wait in line, watch a movie, or get through dinner without looking at our devices. Most of us cannot even get to dinner without directions from an application, or even spell dinner without using autocorrect. In fact, we cannot even order dinner without first double-checking what is ‘trending.’

This is not normal behaviour, it is an abnormal dependence. Technological progress and social evolution are inevitable, but we must also remain cognisant about their adverse effects as well.

The solutions to this predicament are countless, but the long and short of it is to reduce our reliance on our phones. We must learn to spend time away from our phones, and be mindful of the reality around us. GQ magazine, in fact, said it best, “A gentleman’s virtual life should never be bigger than his actual life.”

The writer is an agriculturist with degrees in Economics and Mass Communication. He can be reached at Skhanzada@ymail.com

Published in Daily Times, May 20^th 2018.