During childhood, growing up in small towns in north
interior Karnataka, our best pastime was to play many indigenous games peculiar
to the region and also games involving marbles, yoyo with swing, hide and seek,
climbing trees and going around in rustic surroundings to seek water bodies to
jump in and swim and also in search of rustic fruits like wild gooseberries and
the like.
For elderly folk, after their work hours, newspapers and
Radio were dependable allies. Impact of Radio on society was such that it was
part and parcel of daily existence of common man to cater his multifarious
needs viz. entertainment, culture, politics and so on and as is today its reach
was nook and corner of the country.
Television slowly made its way during the early eighties
and soon cast its magic spell on society with its live coverage of programs and
as a mass media vehicle it altered the face of society for ever and took the
world by storm. It soon became an indispensible companion of every house hold
whether an urban or rural.
Many things which were not possible to see earlier are
now become a reality and person sitting in the comfort of the home, can see
things happening in the country, and the world. around. In the mid-eighties with the arrival of color
televisions made TV programs more popular and attracted wider audience and Television became choice entertainment medium. Early days of television even made people
to engross in its programs and seemingly no one had any time to spare for even
his next-door neighbor, leave aside the society at large. They become absolutely unaware of their
surroundings and were completely lost into the world of the television.
In the early nineties programs like the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata in the morning hours during weekends made people even leave
important appointments and stay glued to the television and for that one hour
of the program even roads in towns wore deserted look and life came to stand
still. Doordarshan serial like Hum Log,
Wagle Ki Duniya, Buniyad, and many such programs virtually sent people crazy
and young and old alike addicted to the Televsion so much so that a new term
was coined in dictionaries to define to call this new class as Couch Potatoes.
Emergence of Personal Computers opened up a new world of opportunities for man.
Computers impact on society was enormous and with the advent of Internet
world became a global village and today there isn't a place where there isn't a
computer. Proliferation of computers in every sphere of human activity made it
as a quintessential part of human life. Computer offered endless opportunities to explore and many young one’s developed an obsession with computers
and only to be called them as Mouse Potatoes.
New millennium began with a bang ushering in its wake a
revolution in communication technology.
Internet made significant strides and came round fully during this
period and paved the way for whole host of new technologies, but it’s the
mobile technology that deeply touched the common man’s life. Though initially it was in possession of only
privileged few, in a span of decade, evolution in its size and reach is
astounding. Its penetration cutting across the barrier of haves and have not’s
is something phenomenal.
Unlike our times, today’s kids are defined by their obsession for Pizza,
Pasta, Burger, and Mobile. Even mothers
of new born kids offer mobile as a play tool. There is no doubt that mobile
devices have already penetrated in people’s daily lives. If you think about
what is the first thing you touched in the morning? Your toothbrush, No, it’s
your mobile phone. Mobile technology brings lots of positive effects to human’s
lives but it takes some negative influences on us as well. Ever changing mobile
technology resulted in smart phones and tablets and these tools are an amalgam
of video, audio, phone and what not? It’s a feeling of whole world in one’s
fist. The new generation mobiles with
their capabilities mesmerized the society at large and the adults in
particular.
As a faithful
traveller in public transport, I see a variety of mobile maniacs. Some are busy
with dangling headphone tucked in their ears, listening to songs and lost in their own
world until ticket collector gently taps on their back and they only realize
that they owe a ticket to him. On
boarding bus some will take time to call their near and dear ones so loudly
that all of their affairs are understood by fellow traveller unintended but the
caller least concerned about his surroundings continues his talk
unabatedly.
Some others enter the running bus while talking over
mobile phone without ever noticing the danger they are in if they fail to get a
foothold on footboard. Still another class of maniacs, once they find
comfortable seat in the bus, they begin mobile conversation and continue their
talk uninterruptedly till they alight from the bus and even after that they
would not seem completed their talk. If
this is the case of not so savvy class but the tech- savvy have their own
temerity towards mobile and they are mostly busy with browsing internet,
texting messages and engaging with social media and they hooked to their gadgets so
intensely that their world is their mobile and are not concerned to the extent
that who is sitting next to them. They
are occasionally disturbed by the call emanating from their own mobile phone
and except that their immersion into the gadget is yogic.
In another instance in a bus an anxious old illiterate
woman was asking to young, educated and apparently employed lady who was
standing next to her to confirm whether she was in the right bus to reach her
destination, but to her amazement the young lady was not responding and stood
like a insensate statue for minutes before a co passenger sensing old woman’s
intent nudged the young lady to respond
and quickly removing her earphone the young lady spoke kindly to the old one
and offered necessary help. The use of mobiles becoming all pervasive such
incidents are not uncommon to see.
On one occasion, an elderly man came near to me pointedly
referring to the man who was strutting briskly on the pavement talking on his
own expressing emotions of now anger and now laughter and it looked bizarre
whoever saw the man but I quickly understood the old man’s intent and told not
to suspect the sanity of the man who had been talking all alone, and it was his
mobile phone making him so, which was hidden to the common eye. On another occasion a Policeman standing at
the deserted cross road wearing helmet was a picture of pantomime show only to
puzzle an onlooker to raise his eye brows to interrogate was policeman in his
senses? Later on only to realize that policeman had tucked in earphone beneath
the helmet and talking to his kindred ecstatically.
In way mobile phone has effectively obliterated class
divide and even so called the elite class have also possessed by the vice like
grip of mobile mania and it makes them lose their presence of mind on important
public functions and as special invitees they occupy the front row in
auditoriums and they frequently walk in and out of the hall to attend the calls. They become insensitive to the audience and
fail to maintain the decorum and decency in important public functions.
Increasing number of students are coming under the grip
of mobile mania and their addiction to the gadget growing day by day and
robbing their attention towards their studies and adversely affecting the
holistic development of their personality,
We see this new tech savvy populace with latest gadgets
in their hands immersed in their world in hoards at Airports, Rail Stations,
Marketplaces, Malls and Multiplexes and name a place where you can’t find them
in an inebriated condition of hooking into their gadgets and is it heralding the
emergence of a new breed of Mobiloholics?
