Allow your heart to connect to people. Give technology some much-needed rest at times. Your heart will not let you down, technology will!
By Nigar Ataulla
A few days ago, waiting at the railway station to receive a friend, I watched people around me, Most of them were talking, but not to each other face-to-face, but, instead, on their mobiles. Days earlier, at the airport, I spotted people waiting for their flights again talking on their mobiles–some so loudly that the whole airport knew their business or personal stories and their travel plans. Others were staring at their laptops, or working on their IPads.
Sometimes, I am asked if I am on Facebook. I have never felt the need to be on any virtual social networks. It’s a personal choice. Some people may feel it’s nice or a necessity, although I don’t. I respect the importance of these networking devices in today’s age, but, honestly, I’ve never felt the need to connect to people through these ‘tech-devices’ as I wish to call them. I have heard some people telling each other that they have 40,000 people following them on Facebook. My goodness! What a big strain, I wonder, having so many people following you and knowing what you do! Like Pied “Piper of Hamlyn with millions of mice running behind you!
I understand that the need to connect to people is natural, but when it takes obsessive forms, like being hooked onto the cell or e-mail every moment of your life, I feel that sometime or somewhere along the line, one gets disconnected with oneself. The more one tries to connect to people through technology, crossing the limits of moderation, the more hollow and disconnected one begins to feel with oneself after some time. The initial euphoria of “being connected in seconds” to all, dies down.
My view may sound old-fashioned and traditional to many today, but that’s fine! To me, connecting within to myself to know who I am is most important, otherwise how on earth will I connect to others and understand them?
These days, people have no time or energy or pennies they think worth sparing to visit each other often, be it on occasions of joy or sorrow or just for a casual drop-by to find out if all is well with others. An SMS message, they think, takes care of this–and its faster and cheaper. Yet, this works through the mind, not the heart. It cannot take the place of face-to-face interaction.
I hear everybody around saying that one has to keep pace with the changing times. Yes, its true, but not at such a fast pace that you reach a stage when you frantically type email messages like a robot, leave lengthy notices on Face-book, or chatter non-stop on the cell just to feel ‘connected’ without realizing that what you say or write or message is not at all what is in your heart!
Allow your heart to connect to people. Give technology some much-needed rest! Your heart will not let you down, technology will!
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