Sometime back, the whole extended family had gathered for a cup of evening tea, quite a rarity nowadays as we all know. My 21 year old smart niece was furiously typing something on her smart phone. Any effort to include her in our conversation was proving futile, she just kept answering in monosyllables. Suddenly she got up, put the phone to her ear and screamed! “How could you say that you were unable to contact me? You could have just googled me up”. We assumed the person at the other end was some long lost friend, whom she was talking to after quite a long time. I could understand her indignation when her friend said that she has lost all contact of her. After all, she was on facebook, twitter, hi5, linked-in, whats App and probably some other social networking sites I do not even know the names of.
As she ranted on and on about her social presence or rather her virtual presence on social media, I could not help wondering, Isnt the ‘virtual life’ silently intruding into our life and stealthily distancing us from our ‘real’ life?
There are about 1.2 billion facebook users – about 190 million tweets a day. Addiction to video games, chat rooms, cyber sex, is getting more common. A game site called “Second Life” has topped the list for addictive game websites, wherein one can create one’s avatar & live virtually- do exactly the same things one would do in real life. We are all so hooked to our smart phones. I often wonder if the whole world will one day become bent at the shoulder or develop trigger finger or carpel tunnel syndrome.
Thanks to technology, and thanks to its abundance and affordability, we are so connected nowadays. We are forever chatting with some person eight thousand miles away. There is no denying that it is really a very nice feeling when you can communicate with your loved ones cutting across the barriers of geography. It is almost like being in the same place within two feet radius.
But what we need to guard against is the importance we attach to our virtual being. Our virtual life is really getting more & more important to us, so much so that it is eating into our actual & real life. The line between private & public is getting blurrier. Couples announce their arguments on facebook & friends “like” it. They announce their patch up & friends like it again. We are informed of rains in our locality through a tweet like “Stuck in rain at JD Mara”. Couples go for a walk to catch up with each other while texting or speaking on their mobile phones. We give each other e-cards, e-gifts, e-hugs, e-kisses & e-what not! We play video games incessantly! God knows where games like carom, ludo, snakes & ladders, Chinese checkers or monopoly have disappeared!
We have done a lot of damage to our relationships through our obsession with our virtual existence. We have hundreds of friends on facebook, we are part of many Whats App groups, yet we have become so so lonely! We have transcended the barriers of time & geography, but are hesitant to connect with the person next door or the person in the next cubicle. We are informed of the happiness quotient of someone at the other end of the earth, but fail to notice the sadness in the face of the person who sits next to us in the cab every day. If we are ever treated to a live performance of music or dance, we forget to clap!
Its time we get real. Time before we all develop some psychological disorder like virtual life syndrome! Lets get the board games back to our lives. Playing these games with family or friends was such great bonding time, arguing over whose chance it is now, teaming up, pulling each other’s leg over a wrong move- it was such fun! Playing antakshari together, tolerating each other’s tuneless cacophony is more developmental for the soul than listening on the ipod, totally oblivious to the rest of the world.
Lets visit a real animal farm than one on facebook. Lets get together to look at the photographs of the places we really went to. Lets keep our gadgets aside when we are walking with a friend. Lets say a hello to a neighbor. Lets catch up over a cup of coffee. Lets give each other a real hug. Lets get the real life back to our life.
Bashari Chakraborti's Blog 
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