Are People Becoming Technological Zombies?
With advancements in civilisation, the continuous efforts of the mankind has helped us to achieve many landmarks in every field of work. Though, earlier considered little, our achievements have now aced the technology so much so, that we are only a click away from having an acccess to the world. From the development of languages for communication to the development of sciences to explore the universe, we have come a long way. The advent of technology has made our lives effortlessly comfortable, not to mention, the transition that has come along with it to every sector of our lives. The arrival of technology has made complicated surgeries and international communications with foreign clients a piece of cake, thanks to AI or Artificial Intelligence, all we have to do is just programme the robot for a specific surgery or set the translation device to decipher a language.
Who would have imagined that we would be able to carry an entire world in our purse or pockets? Eventhough technology has gifted us these sophisticated and concise devices like — Mobilephones, computers, tabs, etc., which have enabled wireless connections to the world, but unfortunately, its influence has also overpowered the humanly features that are a distinctive trait of us, Homo Sapiens. Our over-indulgence and over-dependepence on technology has turned us into a lifeless, insensitive and uninterested individuals, who are a part of the world but their participation is absent. We barely pay attention to anything, even when we eat, we are so immersed in our phones, computers or television sets that we forget to appreciate the food, as we barely recognise the taste of it.
During PTMs/PTAs parents complain that their kid is addicted to mobile phones and ask me to confront their kids, but ask yourselves — Aren’t we the ones who give them an access to these gadgets? Are we not firm enough to dictate the terms of access to the technology? Can we not guard our kids by being their guiding star? You might argue that online classes that are now, the only source of connectivity for the students, teachers and the parents, ever since COVID — 19 clenched us tight in it’s grip, it’s impossible to keep the kids away from it. Well, the idea is not to ignore its existence or to discard the technology completely but to guide our kids to access this technology in a supervised environment. Instead of giving them an access to cellphones, we should offer them laptops or computers, basically a big screen, not only will it help us keep them under surveillance but also prevent deterioration of their eyesight, correct their posture since they will use a table chair and it will definitely increase their concentration. With limited access to technology, the kids will also indulge in physical activities like cycling, walking in parks, playing with friends, not to mention the adoption of hobby will keep their intellect active and help them socialize in the real world.
Man is a social animal, but we scarcely socialize with people these days. Earlier, a get-together used to be a social affair where people communicated with each other, shared their opinions and chit-chatted but today all we ever do is post our lives online for a few ‘Likes’ and wait for the virtual world, for its validation. Remember the blood thirsty zombies from ‘The Train To Busan’, who had their eyes set on people and were running after them aimlessly, having no control on themselves or a sign of soul, that’s what we are turning into. We complaint about depression, anxiety, sorrows and are filled with angst to the brim of our bodies, but do we ever try to sort a solution to any of these problems, do we ever talk to each other as a family to solve things as a combine unit instead of, searching for symptoms and solutions for these emotional imbalances, online? It’s ironic how we make time for an appointment with a counsellor but we never really make an effort to be available for our family members, until it’s too late. The counsellor that we hire does nothing out of the box but becomes a liason for you to enable communication, which we can do ourselves if we stop being the slaves to the technology in our hands.
Technology came into existence to ease our lives by bringing close the distant ones to us, not to exile our closed ones to exist in a virtual world. Necessity is the mother of inventions, and the human race has actively proved its worth to make the world a better place with their constant efforts. But we expect for a handicapped generation to take over the command of the world that is now impaled, many thanks to the unsupervised use of technology. Just to ease our existence in this world, we are empowering technology that might endanger the mere existence of human race, I hope we aren’t making the same mistake that the great — Tony Stark did, when he introduced ‘Ultron’ — an AI that almost succeeded in erasing the human race.
