"Up?"
After surfing through the articles of the plight of the unfortunate migrants and scolding my sister to give the screens a break, I was about to hit the bed, when my phone pinged with the above message. (I'm seriously considering to turn off the notifications)
I was done for the day, honestly. But, seeing the sender, I chose to reply and scold the person off to sleep, too.
"Yeah. What's up?", I replied, rubbing my eyes. I have this bad habit of turning off the lights post midnight. Why do we knowingly indulge in something that's supposed to be bad for us?
"Nothing. Just wanted to talk to you", came the reply. I sensed a feeling of unrest. I sat up erect and texted back, "Is everything all right?".
"I guess it is. I work the whole day and sleep for 7 hrs everyday. But, today when I was free for a major chunk of the day;I felt weird, not because I had no work but for a reason unknown. Not able to understand". I now decided to see through the whole situation.
"....there is this hollow feeling inside- without a trigger", the message continued. I smiled.
"Good that you texted me. Now,call", I replied.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Let me tell you a story. The Frankenstein story. Many of you may have already heard of the famous book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, whose underbelly is based on the future of the human race dealing with their scientific ambition and the dangers posed by it. Quite a moving read with an uncanny resemblance to today's age. Must read for all the Sci-Fi buffs.
Yuval Noah Harari, in his book 'Sapiens' talks about the future of Homo Sapiens with reference to the Frankenstein myth. An excerpt-
"The story says the last days of Homo Sapiens are fast approaching. Unless some nuclear or ecological catastrophe intervenes,the pace of technological advancement will soon lead to the replacement of Homo Sapiens by completely different beings who possess not only different physiques, but also very different cognitive and emotional worlds. This is something Sapiens find extremely disconcerting."
Some geneticists argue that we should go back to being Neanderthals for having wiped them off. I both chide and agree with the statement. Chide because it's so illogical and agree because we could go back to the times when human beings actually interacted.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Time is precious. For me, what has become more precious is having a good conversation in the already precious time. Feet apart, I and my parents text on WhatsApp. It's easier to just text "Vaishnavi, get a glass of water" than shouting about it from the other room. Totally right, but not always. This incident shows how tech has crept into our daily lives and is slowing eroding human relationships. Might sound a lot exaggerated, but think about how subconsciously we've switched to the language of technology.
I know people who are great at online chatting but barely speak when you run into them on the street. It may just be their tendency or nature but the advent of online messengers has given a big momentum to their already shy nature, thus encouraging them to become "online text" aficionados. Don't get me wrong here, the pros of these apps are many but what really is wrong is losing out on human interactions amidst these robotic ones.
So when my friend texted saying that there is an unexplainable hollow feeling inside, I understood. There is a void inside, do you feel it too? You just keep staring at the wall. You aren't really thinking anything. You are just lost. There is no specific emotion, then laziness overtakes. You don't feel like doing anything because you can't fathom anything. There may be different reasons behind this but what I've understood from my experience is, it's because there is an absence of an outlet. Keeping to yourself, suppression and not doing anything about it. Talk to a trustworthy confidant- and TALK (converse). Try it. It makes a world of a difference. Hearing the person's voice consciously just frees you, haven't you felt it too? The cold, black letters read from the screen may pacify you to a great extent but hearing a person say them gives you a good night's sleep.
Increase your interactions.They also improve your relationships. Do not get sucked by technology. Make small changes- try calling the person to wish them on their birthday instead of sending "Happy Birthday bro". We anyway have too less time on this planet and even lesser for ourselves and our loved ones.
After surfing through the articles of the plight of the unfortunate migrants and scolding my sister to give the screens a break, I was about to hit the bed, when my phone pinged with the above message. (I'm seriously considering to turn off the notifications)
I was done for the day, honestly. But, seeing the sender, I chose to reply and scold the person off to sleep, too.
"Yeah. What's up?", I replied, rubbing my eyes. I have this bad habit of turning off the lights post midnight. Why do we knowingly indulge in something that's supposed to be bad for us?
"Nothing. Just wanted to talk to you", came the reply. I sensed a feeling of unrest. I sat up erect and texted back, "Is everything all right?".
"I guess it is. I work the whole day and sleep for 7 hrs everyday. But, today when I was free for a major chunk of the day;I felt weird, not because I had no work but for a reason unknown. Not able to understand". I now decided to see through the whole situation.
"....there is this hollow feeling inside- without a trigger", the message continued. I smiled.
"Good that you texted me. Now,call", I replied.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Let me tell you a story. The Frankenstein story. Many of you may have already heard of the famous book written by Mary Shelley in 1818, whose underbelly is based on the future of the human race dealing with their scientific ambition and the dangers posed by it. Quite a moving read with an uncanny resemblance to today's age. Must read for all the Sci-Fi buffs.
Yuval Noah Harari, in his book 'Sapiens' talks about the future of Homo Sapiens with reference to the Frankenstein myth. An excerpt-
"The story says the last days of Homo Sapiens are fast approaching. Unless some nuclear or ecological catastrophe intervenes,the pace of technological advancement will soon lead to the replacement of Homo Sapiens by completely different beings who possess not only different physiques, but also very different cognitive and emotional worlds. This is something Sapiens find extremely disconcerting."
Some geneticists argue that we should go back to being Neanderthals for having wiped them off. I both chide and agree with the statement. Chide because it's so illogical and agree because we could go back to the times when human beings actually interacted.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Time is precious. For me, what has become more precious is having a good conversation in the already precious time. Feet apart, I and my parents text on WhatsApp. It's easier to just text "Vaishnavi, get a glass of water" than shouting about it from the other room. Totally right, but not always. This incident shows how tech has crept into our daily lives and is slowing eroding human relationships. Might sound a lot exaggerated, but think about how subconsciously we've switched to the language of technology.
I know people who are great at online chatting but barely speak when you run into them on the street. It may just be their tendency or nature but the advent of online messengers has given a big momentum to their already shy nature, thus encouraging them to become "online text" aficionados. Don't get me wrong here, the pros of these apps are many but what really is wrong is losing out on human interactions amidst these robotic ones.
So when my friend texted saying that there is an unexplainable hollow feeling inside, I understood. There is a void inside, do you feel it too? You just keep staring at the wall. You aren't really thinking anything. You are just lost. There is no specific emotion, then laziness overtakes. You don't feel like doing anything because you can't fathom anything. There may be different reasons behind this but what I've understood from my experience is, it's because there is an absence of an outlet. Keeping to yourself, suppression and not doing anything about it. Talk to a trustworthy confidant- and TALK (converse). Try it. It makes a world of a difference. Hearing the person's voice consciously just frees you, haven't you felt it too? The cold, black letters read from the screen may pacify you to a great extent but hearing a person say them gives you a good night's sleep.
Increase your interactions.They also improve your relationships. Do not get sucked by technology. Make small changes- try calling the person to wish them on their birthday instead of sending "Happy Birthday bro". We anyway have too less time on this planet and even lesser for ourselves and our loved ones.
Really nice!
ReplyDeleteMade me feel a void too:)
OMG! Run and call somebody
DeleteHave to go beyond the first movement of Moonlight Sonata. The third movement more than fills the void created by the first
ReplyDelete'Pas de Deux' was written for that. But, isn't a void created when you are filled and then it's emptied?
DeleteTrue :'(
Delete