NO MATTER its artistic exaggeration to make a point, a ‘reel’ on the mobile phone is really revealing a sad reality of modern life. It shows a boy who approaches a lawyer to prepare legal papers since he wants to seek a ‘divorce’ from his parents. The reason: There is an undesirable entity that has clouded his relationship with his mother and father -- their mobile sets (with which they remain engrossed all the time -- leaving him bereft of a sense of togetherness between them and him). The parents, in the end, realise their folly and promise the boy to keep their mobile phones away and spend quality time with the boy -- not occasionally but as a matter of family culture.
The contents of that ‘reel’ apart, the reality of our society today is quite close to what has been depicted in that two-minute video. Countless families are reported to have fallen prey to this ugly social trend that keeps parents -- usually in their twenties, thirties and even forties -- from taking appropriate care of their little ones.
This may appear to be rather harsh a charge. Yet, the truth in it cannot be just brushed or wished aside. That little boy -- may be around 8-9 years of age -- gets so tired of his parents’ indulgence with their mobile sets because of which they find no time to spend with their little one.
The loud-thinker knows quite many families that are confronted with such situations. Among the affected youngsters are kids as young as 3-4 years or adolescents of 12-13-14 years -- or even beyond. A 14-year-old told the loud-thinker that even in her school, the teachers give assignments on mobile phones. In many schools, teachers have formed WhatsApp groups of kids to facilitate group communication with the students. In colleges, too, such a trend is known to have been going on for several years.
Direct human verbal communication, thus, appears to be coming under threat -- thanks to the new mobile-phone culture.
But how can we call this mobile-phone culture ‘new’? For, if a trend is in existence for well over e decade, then it must be described as a set pattern ingrained in our habit and way of life. And if this ‘the’ reality, then we -- as a society -- must consider ourselves as unfortunate.
For, as is the common experience, the mobile-phone culture has taken a precedence over prudence in our lives.
Of course, the loud-thinker is not stating anything new; he has been highlighting this as a major social problem for the past so many years. The people in the larger society, too, have noticed emergence of a mobile-phone culture that has gobbled up normal communication or conversation among people.
This unfortunate trend has attained certain rigidness even in the workplace. For, in countless numbers of offices and organisations -- commercial or voluntary -- communication is done through WhatsApp group messages (when a direct talking is easier and surer way to send a message across).
Thanks to survival of rationality, bosses in many corporate and commercial or social organisations have now begun decreeing that mobile phones are out and direct communication should be preferred.
Of course, such cases are rare, while the larger society is refusing to learn right lessons from negative actual-life experiences stemming from the excessive dependence on mobile-phones. This is, of course, unfortunate, but appears to have been ingrained into the collective social mindset.
This is, of course, dangerous -- really, really dangerous in long term (as well as in
short term), and a considered and wise response needs to be fashioned so that we save ourselves from the ill-effects of a magnificent (wrong) obsession.
The loud-thinker must add here that he knows many such companies where mobile-phones are strictly a ‘no-no’ in internal communication. Most such companies communicate internally only on intercoms. Many families, too, follow similar protocols that abhor excessive dependence on mobile-phones and promote direct, verbal communication among members.
At the start of a new year, this is good enough to
ponder over.