Every new innovation spawns an entire breed of (ab)users who exploit it to its excessive limits. We call these species of human beings maniacs and they are as old as the inventions themselves.
The invention of the microphone (known in the common man's terminology as the 'mike'), led to the emergence of the 'mikomaniac'. Given an opportunity to lay his hands on a mike during a public function, he clutches it as if his dear life depends on it, blissfully unaware of the jeers and yawns of his audience. When soap operas became an integral part of the households, there arose the serial-o-maniac who would not move away from the idiot box for anything. These are all manias of the past. If at all these exist today, they are in a minority or they have been absorbed into the mainstream society. Today, society is having to contend with its latest breed of manias. Communication is the buzzword of modern times. It is the latest mania and its practitioner is the communicomaniac - he who must communicate or receive communication, even if there is nothing to tell or listen to. Under the broad spectrum of communicomaniacs come the more specific maniacs; the phonomaniac, whose existence is meaningless unless he receives or makes a call every few minutes. There is the netomaniac, who lives in mortal fear of being marooned on an island of ignorance while the informed world goes by, all because he lost his net connection for a few minutes. How do you identify these maniacs? Let us take the phonomaniac, for instance. He is busy with his work (which, surprisingly does not involve the use of the phone). Tring, tring. His feet and hands start twitching. Tring, tring. He is afraid the ring will stop and his life will be devastated forever. Tring, tring. This is the point of no return. He must grab the receiver, come what may. He leaves his job midway and rushes to the telephone, only to be greeted with an unsolicited marketing call. So what, he did manage to grab the phone before the world came to an end. This is no small victory. Added worries come with the modern phone with added features. Previously, if the phone was engaged, you would be greeted with the irritatingly rhythmic beep, beep sound. Now that is not the case. Even if the phone at the other end is not free, you are given to believe that it is, thanks to the wonderfully welcoming ringing sound. And if it is not picked up within five rings, you imagine the worst. And God save the person at the other end who is constantly interrupted in his important conversation by the beep-beep, indicating that someone is desperate to talk to him. Finally, out of curiosity and fatigue, he disconnects the ongoing call. Now comes the anti-climax. The 'imagined' desperate person at the other end might just be a routine caller with some routine query. If talking on the phone is comparable to a cake, then sending short messages, the fabled SMSes, is the proverbial icing on the cake. Sending and receiving the same has become a national pastime or, shall we say, a national wastage of time? The girl who leaves for college with her most essential accessory sends at least 10 messages to the concerned parents at home within an hour. 'Hi, mom rchd bs stp', 'wtg fr bs', 'bs dlyd', 'bus arrv', 'gt into bs', 'bs mvg', 'gt dwn'- the list is endless. And if you are a parent who believe that your daughter who boards a bus will obviously reach her destination, message or no message, then you are an unconcerned and uncaring parent who does not deserve to inhabit this 'well-connected' planet. No wonder then, that we have companies announcing mega schemes like 10000 SMSes for only Rs. 200. Tap dancing with the fingers was never so cheap. Have you ever considered how these manias are killing the basic human traits of listening, comprehending, understanding? Schools, these days, prefer communicating through the Internet to having the student listen to the teacher. It destroys the basic classroom ethic of being attentive to what the teacher says. Have you thought about the countless manhours lost in these endeavours? Communication is important, propagators of this mania may say. To them, I ask, where does face-to-face communication figure in their scheme of things? The mother and the daughter who exchange 20 SMSes in a day do not find 20 minutes to talk to each other face to face, though they live under the same roof. Spouses who stay apart are unable to understand what is going on in each other's mind. They feel that modern communication technologies have solved all their problems, forgetting that nothing can replace the comfort of expressing one's feelings face to face. We never bother to visit our relatives and friends, content as we are with chatting with them on the phone. Children abroad feel that their duty ends with chatting with their parents online daily. Let us put an end to this mania. Methods of communication are meant to help us, not to make slaves of us. Human beings are the pride of god's creation, let us keep it so and not allow a machine to usurp our place! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BETTER PERSONALITY GROUP" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/better_personality?hl=en.
