One fine morning, a boy dropped his smart phone into a bucket full of water while listening to his favorite playlist and doing his morning chores. Filled with anxiety, he took the phone out of the water and realized that it had stopped responding. “Rest in peace my android,” he uttered softly. Banging the door of the hostel room and putting on his clothes filled with regret, he soon ran to his friend for help. Busy in his own work, his techie friend told him about a ‘viral trend’ assuring that keeping the phone into a bowl of rice can help him significantly. He told him that rice can absorb the water which has entered the phone and help in its recovery. Without any second thoughts, the boy ran to his room with a slight ray of hope and placed the phone right into the middle of a bowl and filled it with rice.
Getting late for the office, he finished his breakfast in a hurry and somehow reached office on-time. He was physically present in the office, but his mind was running elsewhere, thinking only about the phone. Jumbling up with the work subconsciously his hands were reaching to his pocket every now and then. After an hour, “Will I be able to see my phone ringing again,” he said to himself.
Being in his own world of mixed thoughts, he wondered was a phone so important part of his routine, was he overpowered by a technology? He started recognizing that technology plays a major role in his life as he was disconnected from the social media world, was unable to capture a memorable moment and even missed his playlist. He couldn’t discover new combos on offer during lunch via the food app, but discovered what a good cook his teammate was, as he shared his lunch. Far from his home, that day he understood how much he missed his family and closed ones and how he was addicted to the technology to the core!
Deep down inside, he was flying away from the thoughts of his tech-based device and found a new self! Work was fun, he was enjoying every moment of his routine like never before. He captured moments rather than clicking them with his phone. He was spooked with the thought that, “There is a life which I have been missing all these days.” With a new vision in his nine hours of office, he went back to the hostel filled with enthusiasm.
As he was opening the door, he heard a voice, saying; “Hey did your phone started working?” the voice was of the same techie friend. He rushed to the kitchen, took out his phone from the rice bowl and said, “Please respond my android.” Pressing the power button with closed eyes, the smartphone responded – the technology was back into action! Thanking his friend from the window, he played the same song with a laugh, which he was listening in the morning.
The above story highlights the crests and troughs that occurred in the life of an individual without a smartphone – a device which is disrupting the social media world with its full pace. To be precise, a smartphone phone plays a crucial role in one’s life, from making calls to being updated with the current trends of the world. Today, life seems to be incomplete without these devices. But, not to forget that there is a world out there, waiting for everyone, a world which one can be explored without limitations.
Concluding by the lines said by David Wong, an American writer saying, “New technology” is not good or evil in and of itself. It’s all about how people choose to use it.”
– Rahul Niraj, Editor
Are We Impairing Ourselves with Technology?
