We are progressive. Very and eerie! We have progressed technologically as well as emotionally. The advancements have taken us to different horizons, from where we see the world we once were a part of, stealthily, avoiding being a part of it. We text each other, online and offline, with many heart-warming adjectives, without feeling them, even without meaning them. Life has really come a long way, to replace real feelings with virtual ones. Well, well I am not one of those cursing the new generation and it's ways, not that old yet. However I am definitely one of those, who feels irritated to see 1000 messages to fix a date of a meeting and ultimately dropping the plan. We are gradually moving away from the touches that made life, a little more worthy. The thing about modernization is, not all is negative, infact it is invincible for growth. But yeah surely there are some side effects, whether we admit it or not.
1. Are we loosing our traditions? Time to think
I remember how proficiently my grandma made irresistible sweets during Sankranthi. We bongs call these "pithe" . My mom makes them too and whenever I am in Kolkata I ask her to make some. But if you ask me, ummm...I am kind of novice in creating these delicacies. Probably my next generation will miss these and some more. Now whom to blame? Myself?..well given to my schedule..I doubt. So I am temped to put the black ink on "modernization" in inverted commas. I am fine saying that my grandma or mom did not have to chase project deadlines or face corporate politics that drains, literally. But then what about the loosing essence of our colorful nation, the tradition, the food and the varied heritage. Can our work-life really out-weigh that? I don't know..
Trying to hold
on to our traditions..
but how?
2. Weekends mean malls, no longer do we visit each other
When I was a kid, I used to live in a township (READ:MY DREAMY CHILDHOOD) beautiful and serene. On weekends we visited other family friends or they visited us. It was fun believe me. Kids born in 90s' might not have experienced this. Today, we plan either to dine out or catch a movie together. Sudden visits, the snacks, the tea and more importantly the warmth has sublimed to thin air. Given to our schedules, weekends are usually spent oversleeping or planning what to do. Seldom do we just call up and say, "hey open the door, we have come to pay a visit!" Are we becoming robots chasing money...Earlier we used to talk about nucleation of families, now is the era of nucleation of the society.
Are we robots
chasing money?
3. Modern day kids are born Tech-Savy
I am completely clueless whether the tech love that has cropped into our lives is good or bad for the new generation kids. I feel strange to see a two year old sitting quietly with a tab in an airport while her/his mom is busy with her laptop. Probably modernisation has taught the new-gen parents to find out short-cuts of keeping their lil ones busy, while they can chase their targets uninhibitedly. While these kids might grow up to be more informed individuals than past generations, but I doubt about their physical strength. As they have not been exposed to the gruelling sun, heavy rains playing football, they have not jumped around and hurt themselves, instead they have plunged into the couch with their video game remotes, so the question is, are we rearing a weaker race with each generation?
Are we rearing a
weaker race with
each generation?
4. Virtual world of nothingness
Sometimes back a friend of mine and me was discussing, why social networking is so damn famous. She had said a very interesting point, she said that, deep within us we all want to be famous, talked about and craved for, and this love of ours to be seen is exploited by the social networking creators. We have 500-1000-2000 friends in Facebook etc, but are they "friends"? Definitely not! They are like vote banks, or more precisely like/comment banks, a gauge of judging how popular we are. And somewhere in this mist of nothingness, we have lost real friendships. These days fixing a meeting requires hundreds of messages exchanged, earlier it was just a phone call away. However there are goods too, the virtual social networks have helped to reach out to many in many positive implications and causes. It has a platform for common people to voice their thoughts.
2. Weekends mean malls, no longer do we visit each other
When I was a kid, I used to live in a township (READ:MY DREAMY CHILDHOOD) beautiful and serene. On weekends we visited other family friends or they visited us. It was fun believe me. Kids born in 90s' might not have experienced this. Today, we plan either to dine out or catch a movie together. Sudden visits, the snacks, the tea and more importantly the warmth has sublimed to thin air. Given to our schedules, weekends are usually spent oversleeping or planning what to do. Seldom do we just call up and say, "hey open the door, we have come to pay a visit!" Are we becoming robots chasing money...Earlier we used to talk about nucleation of families, now is the era of nucleation of the society.
Are we robots
chasing money?
3. Modern day kids are born Tech-Savy
I am completely clueless whether the tech love that has cropped into our lives is good or bad for the new generation kids. I feel strange to see a two year old sitting quietly with a tab in an airport while her/his mom is busy with her laptop. Probably modernisation has taught the new-gen parents to find out short-cuts of keeping their lil ones busy, while they can chase their targets uninhibitedly. While these kids might grow up to be more informed individuals than past generations, but I doubt about their physical strength. As they have not been exposed to the gruelling sun, heavy rains playing football, they have not jumped around and hurt themselves, instead they have plunged into the couch with their video game remotes, so the question is, are we rearing a weaker race with each generation?
Are we rearing a
weaker race with
each generation?
4. Virtual world of nothingness
Sometimes back a friend of mine and me was discussing, why social networking is so damn famous. She had said a very interesting point, she said that, deep within us we all want to be famous, talked about and craved for, and this love of ours to be seen is exploited by the social networking creators. We have 500-1000-2000 friends in Facebook etc, but are they "friends"? Definitely not! They are like vote banks, or more precisely like/comment banks, a gauge of judging how popular we are. And somewhere in this mist of nothingness, we have lost real friendships. These days fixing a meeting requires hundreds of messages exchanged, earlier it was just a phone call away. However there are goods too, the virtual social networks have helped to reach out to many in many positive implications and causes. It has a platform for common people to voice their thoughts.
Lost in the world
of nothingness..
Are we?
5. Slaves to Technology
Technology has changed our lives and has made it better and better. But unconsciously we are becoming slaves to it. We don't remember the mobile numbers, addresses or other important details of even the nearest of ours and sometimes even ours, everything is stored in some device, and the memory part of the brain is largely unemployed. For shopping we use apps, for banking we use apps, for calling a plumber well again "WE USE APPS". Our habits of going out to get necessary items for living is slowly vanishing. Well these generation of apps suits us, because we don't have time. But what when we become so lazy that we don't even want to use the apps. Well I recently read somewhere that the next gen is gonna have robots to help them, and I think that is where we are heading to....
This is the
APP Generation
Well, having written all that I have, this is not about conclusion, the discussion is open. Open to you and to you...Tell me what you feel about the SIDE EFFECTS OF MODERNISATION.
Trying to catch up with Time
Written by : Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta
Concept: Avishek Sengupta and Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta
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