The Bad and the Ugly of Staying Too Connected

I see people in the malls taking a million selfies. Pictures of food items get taken till the person wielding the phone is satisfied with them, even if that means letting the food go cold. "Eating", "sleeping" and even "feeling happy" are no longer emotions felt intrinsically but ones that are advertised to the whole digital world through social media. Gone are the days when relatives/friends would wait for postcards from loved ones living abroad, WhatsApp is so much faster even if it means letting go of that personal touch which pings can never give. Skype calls or hangout calls can never be the same as sharing physical space with a person, even if it means merely sharing comfortable silences in the other's presence. Traveling has merely become an excuse to bombard one's followers with photos of the trip instead of penning down their thoughts or maintaining a travelogue.

When I look around and notice all this, I feel bad for my generation. We seem so intent on capturing moments and sharing them with others that we sometimes forget to experience them. Whatever happened to storing all these memories in our good ol' memory card we've all been blessed with, the brain? What is with this need for constant validation from others, whether it's regarding our social life, our relationships or even our social status? Why do we fail to realize that almost everyone tries to paint a picture perfect version of their lives on social media which is definitely not the case with anyone? Why do we need studies to reaffirm that this is precisely the reason some people actually get into depression after comparing their lives to their friends merely by seeing their Facebook updates? Our generation deals with enough societal pressures as it is. Do we need anything more to add to this list?

The whole "development at what cost" angle has almost been done to death with. But sometimes we fail to understand the enormity of how much technology has actually put us behind. I look at the previous generations and sometimes wonder where we went wrong. I see the next generation and get so frightened, that I begin questioning whether to even bring kids into this world. So where is all of this heading? When will we actually realize that we can't let technology rule our lives and live in the moment instead of merely tweeting about it?

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