I recently visited an ophthalmologist. Before listening to me the doctor asked me how much time I devote to my mobile phone. He actually meant my virtual presence. I hesitated and didn’t answer. I was left spell bound when the doctor advised me that I should not exceed five hours a day on internet. But later on I realized that the doctor was well informed about the present teens and he was perfect.
I-T revolution may have converted this world into a global village. It may have made it possible to talk and make friends with those whom we didn’t know. It may have changed the scenario of this world and modern world may be proud of I-T. But the way it is shaping our world, it is really worrying. It has made us its servants.
Everything in this world has pros and cons. When Adam was sent on earth, devil accompanied him. In other words all that is present has negatives as well as positives. Internet is no exception. Actually when we discover or invent something, we don’t go onto the negative side. When Alford Nobel discovered RDX, he had no intentions to use it for destruction. He discovered it for mining purposes. He never knew that one day it will be used to kill people. Internet’s story must go the same way. Its founding fathers must not have gone to the negative side. They must have discovered it for convenience of people, to bring people closer.
One of the most important parts of internet is social networking. For some people internet and social networking are synonyms. It is hard to found anyone not having Facebook, Watsapp, Tumblr, Instagram or Hike applications installed in his or her phone. These were made to make our life easier and to bring people close. But the way people use these sites, it seems that these are addictive. These seem to be the likes of alcohol, cocaine, marijuana etc. Once a person logs in, it is really difficult to log out. People especially teenagers get glued to their mobile phones. Being a teenager of modern world I too belong to this category. I too spend much time on internet.
By the virtue of these social networking sites we all, especially the teenagers have got two types of lives; one is real and another virtual. This is really worrying that we spend precious time of our life on these social networking sites. Our virtual presence hurts our real presence. We ignore our real world, devote less time to it and instead waste our time on our virtual presence.
Some people live in fool’s world. For them the cheapest way to become a celebrity is to write down false information about themselves on these social networking sites. They present themselves as professionals of their dream professions. This does impact their real life. Most of the people who are addicted to internet have got insomnia. They don’t sleep anymore. They stand up whole night chatting with their friends.
There is no denying the fact that we can hone our debating and discussion skills through these sites. These sites have got potential that they can bring people closer and make life easy. But it is we, the people who are using these sites the other way. Keeping the present situation in consideration, it is easy to predict that instead of manufacturing Google Children, the I-T revolution will manufacture slow-speed kids with high speed internet.
It is okay to master our virtual presence. But if it makes us its servant, then this leads to destruction. There was a time when people used to read books, spend time with their families and enjoy their lives. But now social networking has taken their place. Even people have forgotten their hobbies. There was a time that we used to do healthy things in our leisure time but nowadays chatting is a new hobby and unfortunately some people have converted it into their habit. One really doubts if social networking really socialized us or dissocialized us.