LIFE IS PLUGGED IN TODAY
Today, children are being robbed of their childhood by science. Playing together used to
be the way children discovered themselves and explore the world around them through their own perception, imagination, and individual as well as group contacts and
interactions. They would argue with friends, draw lots, chase each other,
sometimes laughing, sometimes tumbling, bumping and bumbling around. They
talked, fought, and resolved their conflicts face-to-face. This helped them to
be connected with each other, with their parents, siblings, and friends. Life
was not only physically active and immediate, but also was spiritually
connected, in which every interaction was direct: body to body and soul to
soul.
Modern technology has changed all that was a charm in life. Adults, as well as kids
now contact on face book, twitter, and text messages. Information, learning,
knowledge, and life experiences, all come to everyone pre-managed,
scientifically prepared, readymade, and above all filtered through digital devices. Today even before the babies can walk they are exposed to screen media, and our children are plugged in 7 to 8 hours daily, relating to each other differently–without any
physical or spiritual contact. Teen-agers woo each other by text; be-friend or
break up on twitter, tease and taunt, cheat and deceive each other–in some
extreme case commit criminal acts or get depressed to the point of
suicide– all being performed in cyberspace. Whereas the consequences of such a hyper-wired life style is physical crippling, social isolation, intellectual introversion,
imaginational stagnation, it is dangerously emotional decadence and spiritual
dissipation. The new generation is depriving itself of direct intellectual
investigation, interpersonal social skills, emotional bonds, spiritual quest,
and morality as a virtue, that the older generation learned through common
interaction. Today, before all of us is a big question: Is modern science
tyrannously changing our course of evolution? Is science taking over the
divinely designed or the naturally evolved man and arbitrarily shaping him
as an emotionless and spiritless figure servant to technology’s
sovereignty?
Mirza Ashraf
It is true that activities of children are “plugged-in” these days but I am not sure if “children are robbed of their childhood by science”. Actually if something must be blamed at all (I wouldn’t) its the parents who don’t guide or take interest in the time management of their children. Schools actually start early now – from pre-schooling and I remember five year mark used to be beginning of schooling and now by that age kids are much more smarter than before. TV has been very helpful in learning for children, even cartoon shows are very informative and there are lots of fun shows teaching counting, alphabets etc. with the help of music. Its not that kids don’t interact anymore, schools and playgrounds are very much part of early life of today’s kids. A child’s personality they say is formed by the age of seven, or around there somewhere, so the impact of social media
(Facebook etc.) does not interfere much with their personality development. Activities of young adults are definitely different now and not always in the bad sense. Kids are much more knowledgeable thanks to Internet, Google & Wikipedia and information only a click away.
I also could not relate to “The new generation is depriving itself of direct intellectual investigation ….”, what I remember of my past is that I used to spend most of my time out of school in the soccer field or climbing trees and don’t remember what other kids my age were investigating intellectually. Very few visited libraries and now any book is a click away (thanks to science), one can get info of any kind from search engines.
Bullying was very much alive and well physically in the past, and still goes on and not due to “plugged-in” or due to science.
I have no doubt if, a kid from the past is placed in today’s field, that kid will totally fail in competition with today’s kids….in almost any field with the exception of wrestling may be.
I am totally for science, no regrets.
Hear, Hear, Baber Saheb ! Well said. Those days are gone when 3 R’s used to be the foundation of education. We are in cyber age. I realize that elderly among us are stuck in the 1950’s and 60’s and find it difficult to keep pace with march of Time. The only constant in the universe is Change. Not many people understand the difference between moment to moment passage of time and the continuum of Absolute Time and its essence. We the humans have come a long way and have a longer way to go. But the pace of change is accelerating at geometric progression and even one life-time is too long to cope with the changes.
Look out, look out, Obama, iPhone is dangerous for you! The news has appeared as:
“Obama: ‘I’m not allowed an iPhone!”— “WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday he was not allowed to have an iPhone owing to security fears — explaining why he is sometimes seen with a bulky super secure Blackberry.”
Technology is a GREAT BLESSING, but if not tamed and put into use constructively is the GREATEST CURSE. With due respect to my intelligent commentators, please re-read my blog and tell me where I said that new technology is wrong. I have in the first paragraph related the charm of our childhood–which undoubtedly always seems sweet. Think for a moment, nuclear technology is a blessing but its product the nuclear bomb is the most horrible weapon that can de-populate this planet. Drones delivering packages from Amazon at our door step is excellent, but throwing bombs to kill one person and destroy a whole village killing hundreds of innocent people is horrible. Please, if we are not happy with the God of scripture, we should not become servants to the modern god of science. Let science be our servant, our guide, our teacher to take us on the right path. But the way it is taking us, it is more towards destruction in the cover of construction.
I may add here for those who are totally for science: Einstein was asked how the IIIrd WW will be fought and he replied he is not sure about it, but he is sure the IVth World War will be fought with sticks and stones. Science is great but I cannot not go totally for it.
Mirza Ashraf
Look out, look out, Obama, iPhone is dangerous for you! The news has appeared as:
“Obama: ‘I’m not allowed an iPhone!”— “WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday he was not allowed to have an iPhone owing to security fears — explaining why he is sometimes seen with a bulky super secure Blackberry.”
Technology is a GREAT BLESSING, but if not tamed and put into use constructively is the GREATEST CURSE. With due respect to my intelligent commentators, please re-read my blog and tell me where I said that new technology is wrong. I have in the first paragraph related the charm of our childhood–which undoubtedly always seems sweet. Think for a moment, nuclear technology is a blessing but its product the nuclear bomb is the most horrible weapon that can de-populate this planet. Drones delivering mail and packages in the front or back yard of everyone is excellent, but throwing bombs to kill one person and destroy a whole village killing hundreds of innocent people is horrible. Please, if we are not happy with the God of scripture, we should not become servants to the modern god of science. Let science be our servant, our guide, our teacher to take us on the right path.
But the way it is taking us, it is more towards destruction in the cover of construction. These iPhone or iPod are no doubt great, but the way we are plugged in, its outcome–only mothers can tell what is going on and how difficult it is becoming for them to control the unwanted, indecent, and unhealthy material being exposed to their kids from the age of 4/5 to the teen aged ones. Couple of days ago an article by a mother appeared in the Huffington Post which was very useful. I may add here, that Einstein was once asked with so much scientific progress, how ill the IIIrd World War be fought. He replied that he cannot say anything about the IIIrd WW, but about the IVth World War, he is sure it will be fought with sticks and stones. I love science and believe science is great, but I won’t go all for science. There is much more in life which is beyond the realm of science.
Mirza Ashraf
From THE WEEK, December 27, 2013, by James Graff
Society is always in a state of evolution. In human affairs as in nature, change is constant, so we have to adapt to new technology and economic conditions. The business world calls it “disruptive innovation,” with the best example being iTunes’ deathblow to CD sales. More interesting than the bottom line results, though, are the ructions that new inventions cause to human behavior. Much as our ancestors had to learn new standards of etiquette when firs was tamed, when agriculture took hold, and when the automobile transformed the landscape, we’re still trying to figure out how to properly deal with the instant, vast, and indelible effects of the SMARTphone. President Obama was slammed for beaming into the leggy Danish prime minister’s “selfie” at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service , but there is more than political embarrassment at stake here. Lives risk ruin from ill-considered pictures or utterances passed on preserved for eternity., and more teenagers now die from driving while texting than from driving while drinking.
We’ll adjust to the SMARTphone, just as we’ve adjusted to everything else. Public figures may think twice about grinning into a selfie at a somber occasion. Social pressure and new laws may curtail texting behind the wheel. STILL WE’LL NEVER BE QUITE THE SAME. A recent study has found that hyperconnected students tend to be less happy than those who give precedence to the immediate world outside their smartphones.
IGNORE THAT SMARTPHONE: Kent State University Researcher, Andrew Lepp. Smartphones make it easy to socialize and search internet, but the ability to constantly connect can have a downside. A new study of 500 college students found that those who use their cellphones most often are likely be less happy, more anxious, and less successful students than those who sometimes ignore them. “There is no ‘me’ time or solitude left in some of these student’s lives.”
A COMMENT: “I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life’s events, and just recover from daily stress.” After tracking the students’ cellphone use, Lepp and his team found that those who could put their cellphones aside for periods of time earned higher GPAs and experienced less anxiety and greater happiness in their lives than more frequent phone users. “The social network sometimes just makes me feel a little bit tied to my phone,” one student said, “It makes me feel like I have another obligation in my life.”
COMMENT BY MIRZA ASHRAF: I am sure we’re not throwing away the smartphones, rather we have to find out solutions of the problems and side effects of this new machine. Today’s information revolution has brought us a handy source of information and knowledge. It is undoubtedly a huge step forward where in every moment, every one of us is connected with every other person, but NO ONE IS IN CONTROL of anyone and most of the time even of one’s own self. We are more free from the bonds of our parents who controlled us, but aren’t we in control of the SMARTPHONE, a piece of machine controlling and shaping our lives, our future? I always ask myself where are we going and what type of humans these machines are going to evolve?
Mirza Ashraf