The Digital- Life Saga

Today’s evening walk had been quite momentous. I crossed a house well known to my family and I saw  the lady of the house swabbing the verandah while the domestic help was sitting on the stairs worming into facebook. I decided to abandon my walk in order to check with aunty if she had exchanged personalities with her maid;  she was definitely in a tizzy seeing me having found her in this situation so she explained that her maid is worried as she has some family crisis so she has to leave immediately and is waiting for her son to pick her up. I looked at the ‘’worried and distraught maid who was reading a fake rumour on FB with occasional grins and smirks directed towards the screen while her mistress was mopping her abode on her behalf. Funny world, I thought.

My issue wasn’t with the maid checking her FB posts but I was mentally questioning her priorities. However, I realized that I wasn’t any different in that regard; the maid and I were digitally tantamount. Even when I am working on something that has a deadline, I would still want to check every FB notification that pings, every whatsapp message even if it is sukhi aunty’s request to share Shirdi Saibaba’s photo to 10 people lest a mishap befalls.

Digitalization has changed the world; It’s made life easy for people. News, events, payments, transactions and job applications are only a click away. One can speak to their mama- mami settled in Canada from Jalandhar and discuss why mittoo doesn’t want to marry pingu. Digitalization has definitely brought the world closer; you  know more about celebrity weddings than about a wedding in your  own society, you know more about what your chaachi cooked in the US than what is  cooked in your own kitchen. You watch videos of funny baby antics when your own baby is longing for your attention. You click pictures of the sad predicament of a hungry society when it doesn’t even take 1/10^th of your salary to feed any particular cluster. The posts apprised online is more for likes and less for expressions; and the freedom of speech is only in theory as there are murder threats issued to those who post their opinions without any filter.

The biggest downside according to me is that one finds it difficult to differentiate between real and unreal content . Recently, I read something online about fake whatsapp rumours that are triggering deaths across the country.  The viral rumours were about alleged kidnappers who were actually innocent beings; this rumour got spread across via facebook and whatsapp and caused lynching deaths. The Indian authorities later had to make campaigns to salvage the situation; the campaign described how fake news can be differentiated from the real news. However, the fake news saga continues…

During the course of illness and adversity, people find solace digitally because apparently there is nothing better than “Google”. The world economic forum coined the phrase- Fourth Industrial Revolution” where Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, driverless cars , 3D Printing and many other technologes could be the new future. I don’t really know if it’s a good or a bad a thing yet; all I understand is that humans have created machines and machines are eradicating humans.

We also need to be aware that the exploitation of computers have given rise to cyber crimes like fraud, robbery, illegal downloading, child pornography , cyber terrorism and distribution of viruses. The figures and statistics of the cyber crimes in India have been constantly ascending, a recent survey explained how every second a woman gets tricked into being a victim of cyber crime. Cyber bullying is now being used as tool for threats, vengeance and purpose .

While some of the negativities of the digital era can be curbed and solved, issues like cyber bullying and fake viral rumours have no solutions. However, personally we can all try for the digital  era to be less adverse on us; the ball is always on our court. If you really want to speak to a friend, try ringing her/him or meeting her/him personally rather than chatting. If you want to discuss a problem ask yourself first before posting feelings online. If you are looking for a stress buster, hug a dog or play with your child. If you really want to be happy make a human smile everyday. Life happens once, happy moments need to be cherished and admired. Try to breathe and live today because happiness happens for real, happiness is born inside you not digitally. If you really want to use the digital platform, use it to spread love, awareness and spirituality rather than detest, hatred and anger. Let the love be stronger than hatred, always!

Image Credits : Google and Radha Aunty
References:
https://www.vakilno1.com/legal-news/cybercrime-in-india.html
https://www.livemint.com/Industry/bRDDR7SPed23hGgtvwtKWM/India-in-10-years-The-beginning-of-a-digital-era-of-inclusi.html
https://thefuturescentre.org/articles/8241/do-new-technologies-bring-us-closer-together-or-drive-us-apart