No, this isn't a philosophical article. And I hope the image doesn't make you think this is comic book fan talk either. Do bear with me and read on.
Gone are the times when man's basic needs were merely food clothing and shelter. In fact, there were times when I wondered why clothing had to be mentioned as a need, but now there is no room for such debates - with extravagance "evolving" into comfort and comfort into necessity, the aforementioned list has grown from merely three items to several. As one wonders which of these needs to be mentioned at the top, one's eyes involuntarily look around, scanning for an unoccupied plug point.
Man invented machines to simplify life - to reduce effort - and to eventually become independent, but today, man has become pathetically dependent - a parasite, greedily looking for electricity. Ironically, this pursuit for power, in addition to mocking man's desire for 'power', points to the fact that technology has turned humans into emotionless robots that feed on electricity. We have films that explore the dangers that can be brought about by the advancement of technology but hardly anyone stops to see the detrimental effect that it has already had.
Machines have gone far from being helpful little tools that simplify our lives - they have become little goblins that drain our attention, our energy and - well, our electricity. It is disheartening to see people in shopping malls, airports and, well, pretty much anywhere, hunting around for a plug point to connect their devices to. Battery backups and power banks are rampant, but they seem to only make things worse. The care we once had regarding packing for trip has now reduced to merely charging our devices. Of course, is an advantage that our tickets, among several other documents can be carried by electronic media, but the attention our devices demand is much more than that which our paper documents did. Smiles and other expressions are fast being replaced by emoticons that seem to me, to merely mock true emotions, and people seem to have forgotten to emote.
I thought it would stop, but the transition from bad to worse - or rather, the unending race towards the worst, is only accelerating. Texts have replaced phone calls, and expression of affection to mere sending of images, and it doesn't seem long before humans forget to see each other's faces. I wouldn't be surprised to see newer disease names coming up in the near future, further complicating the already complicated human life.
Change is needed badly. People should want to see people's faces, hear friends' voices. Our interaction should be with living, breathing people, not with devices that heat up.
And now, clicking the publish button, I am shutting my devide down to go out for a nice walk.
Very true.
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