Divorcing my Phone

This article is an epilogue to an interesting forward that has been circulating in ‘watsapp’. It starts with the sentence ‘I decided to get a divorce in 2014’. As you read full on, expecting a juicy tale of a broken marriage, a completely different plot unfolds. The creator of the message goes ahead and says its his doomed iphone that he wishes to get a divorce from. He goes on to tell the story of how his smart phone has taken up an enduring space in his life and how it is actually stealing away the precious time that his family deserves.

It was indeed a very thought provoking read. I am a person who ‘used to’ spend quite a large chunk of my waking time with my phone in the virtual world. Yes, you heard it right – I meant to say “used to” (well not because I was suddenly enlightened by reading the forward that I decided to put my phone away). Basically, I guess most of us belonging to mine or the younger generation are so used to this. It has become a newly found hobby to us. We have all on a sudden switched over to the virtual world - face book or twitter, Instagram  – engaging ourselves and finding fun in virtual debates and altercations.  Of course this has improved our connect tremendously and the communication has improved.

Owing to the ‘not so sudden enlightenment’ I have had, I realised that I along with many others was gradually going into smart phone abuse rather than usage. It had become more of a habit for me, while I watched a movie, while I was at work, while I was talking to someone. I could hardly exist without the whatsapp groups where my friends and family shared keenly on their day to day stuff. But while we are connected to all these people living across the world, we are probably losing out on what is happening around us – probably at our home, our office, our neighbourhood.

10 years back probably we had not thought that phones would become such an integral part of our lives. Today, they have changed our lives drastically – way beyond our imaginations. So the next time you are out with your friends/family make sure that you switch off the mobile data/turn off the wi-fi and talk to ‘real people’.

Well, these are just my views. You are free to agree to disagree. Happy reading...!!