It never ceases to amaze me to see what technology can do
nowadays. Flash back to my childhood, when my father worked abroad, in somewhere
far away, the only thing that always made us keep in touch was a telephone in a
place named wartel. Every two weeks my mother, my brother and I went to wartel
to have a talk with my father. Unluckily, we couldn’t talk too long because it was
an international call which cost very expensive. My mother said that before I was
born, the communication between my father and her was even worse, by mail. Was
it hard? Well, compare to the days we live now, it could be very hard.
Okay, lets talk about the situation now. I think we don't
need any explanation about communication and information technology these days. We live in smartphone
era where internet is an essential part of life. There are so many messenger
application to communicate easily with everyone around the world. There is no
longer separation between each country and even continent. We can know directlty
what happens in another side of earth. All we need is just a thumb to catch up
on today’s occurrence. We can get anything we want to know just by asking a search
engine and it will give us tons of information we need. Not to mention social
platforms, we can make friends with everyone we never meet, from other region,
or country. We can share our thoughts, opinions, even something very private,
and let the world know it. And it just takes one click to get to our favorite
celebrity. We know their private life by following their updates in social
network.
The development of technology is extremely useful and very
helpful to our real life. It makes distance become nothing. It also makes us
become productive and creative and fun. It makes the world feels small. And
sometimes, it can be an escape from real life.
What bad is, technology can also create a new world for us.
The world where we busy on our own life with social network, endless status
updates, exchanging opinions and comments, or perhaps chatting with anonymous
people.
Sometimes we are gathering in the same room with friends or
family, but busy with our own gadget, lost in our own world. We are physically near
to each other, but actually we are separated. We are no longer there. We have
our own thoughts that take us to somewhere else. We were drowned by articles,
or status, or pictures or videos, or updates we find in our own world.
Every morning, our gadget is the first thing we look at, and
it also the last thing we check on in the night. We are busy arranging words
and share it, or just simply make an update about what we have on breakfast,
lunch, dinner, or what we are doing on weekend. After updating it, are we just
put the gadget and continue our activities? No, not really, we continue our
activities and still keep our eyes on the phone screen.
When someone talking to us while we are enjoying our life on
internet, we listen to it and try to put our attention, or well, lets say make
a pretense at listening. Sometimes we say one or two words, or sometimes nod
our head, but actually our mind is in somewhere else. Maybe in beautiful beach
with clear sand and sea that we see on Instagram, or in the middle of debating on
Facebook group, or in other part of the world where our crush just checked in
on Path.
When we go to somewhere, instead of enjoying the scenery and
the atmosphere, we take about ten minutes looking for a good scenery for the
background for our picture, and another ten minutes to find the best angle, take many of pictures and selfie, choose the best filter, then upload it. Once
again, social network is all that matter.
It’s not about the relaxation we feel after the vacation, it’s about the
picture we show on our social network accounts.
Basically, the development of Technology, especially in
communication and information, is to make our bussiness easier, and to
facilitate us doing things we need without significant difficulties. But in
reality, it makes us become depending on it just like how we depend on oxygen
to breathing. When we forget to bring our smartphone, breathing and living
becomes a struggle. Another thing is, it makes us close to thousand of friends
in social network from all around the world, yet separate us with those who
live near to us in real life. It makes our quality time is to have a gadget in
hand and looking for something new on internet. Taking a walk with family and
friends, or having a cup of tea with loved one is no longer interesting.
Are we happy? Yes we are. Who doesn’t happy when they have
many friends to talk to in social network, when all of information we need are
in our hand. But, at the end of the day, some of us may realize that the real
sense of joy and fulfillment is the real social interaction and face to face
communication with depth and true connections. And some of us also may realize
that what we share in social network, maybe just another side of ourselves. Our
friends in social network only see us by pictures or words we share. There are
some things they don’t know, our weakness that we refuse to share. Our weakness
that only people around us, in this real world, know. Weakness that we show
only to those we know in real life, our friends, family or significant one.
Those people who live near to us, who know us very well, who know our weakness,
but still accepting us the way we are.
It is definitely true that technology is very useful in making everything easier. But, dont forget that it is just a tool to increase the quality of our life. And the most important thing is don’t let the technology control you. You control it. You control yourself.
Well, now, why don't we just simply go outside and enjoy the
fresh air? Or hangout with friends? Or have a good talk with significant one? Or
maybe, just enjoy the sights outside, take a deep breath, and enjoy our me-time
alone? And of course, leave the phone turned off.