Welcome to the real world

Samarjit Kambam *

Guys, please come out of the box. Please take a break for you are too hooked to the virtual world and please believe that every second you are being glued to the screen of your PC Laptop, Tablet, i-Pod or Smartphone Tweetering, Whatsapping, Instagraming, Face-booking, e-mailing, browsing, You-tubing, Google driving, eBaying, Binging, chatting etc., you are losing every second of your precious real world time.

We all know that man is a social animal and it is human nature to talk, speak, chat and discuss among ourselves, share joys and sorrows, spend time together as such inherited characteristics are deeply embedded in our genes.

It is a known fact that once we are in the domain of any social networking site we find it hard to get out. Well, it really feels great to chat, tag, share pictures and videos, reading or sending views and comments and even date a person from the opposite end of the globe.

One unique trend is that once we get hooked to a social networking site we lose sense of time. An hour gone seems as though only a minute has passed by. In fact, we get cocooned in a virtual world which we term as "our perfect world". But in real-time our world is becoming imperfect. Please let me quote a few words given by Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists of all times, "I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots".

You may become a recluse, an introvert, develop a tendency to dislike others or even hate to greet people you meet whom you know whether they are your friends or relatives.

You may want yourself to be left out of the crowd and a sense of lack of confidence may develop upon you along with insecurity and discomfort to mingle with others. You will want to be left alone, not to be disturbed. Your virtual social life may go up but your real social life will definitely go down with your social life becoming unhealthy followed by moral degradation.

You may acquire lot of knowledge, views and innovative ideas at the click of a button of the mouse or screen-touching by browsing through social networking and other sites, but you will get more embedded in your virtual life that you may end up hating the real world. As per my experience whenever I get hooked to a social networking site, I lose on an average a precious one to two hours to get unhooked as it is very addictive thereby becoming a stumbling block in looking into the household affairs and other essential works and responsibilities.

So, taking into account the time consumed as you get yourself hooked to such networking sites, the most sensible question is, "Is it really worth It? Is the time spent justified?"

The golden rule of Physics i.e. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" is a universal truth. The more your virtual friends increase, the more your real world friends will get decreased. We can see only one side of the moon. Same is the case of virtual friendship. You can see the bright side of your virtual friend but you will not find the other (dark) side of your virtual friend.

The most constant thing in the world is 'change", for the world keeps on changing every second. Nobody can stop the change. A decade ago, we didn't even have the slightest idea of what a social network would be but as time passes by, lot of changes are taking place be it science and technology, culture, mindset, character, nature of work, lifestyle, communication, transport etc.

Alongside, we are experiencing established customs getting de-established, disparity between rich and poor getting wider, unnatural and unhealthy lifestyle, bad etiquette and manners, lost of respect to elders, lost of trust, faith and many more.

The youngsters of this era hardly touches a literary book or novel of high value which is inspirational, moral boosting, and can inculcate in the reader's mind a sense of human value, compassion for others and family values. Jargons and Internet slangs such as LOL (Laughing out loud), CUS (See you soon), g8 (Great) 2u (To you), 2m (To me), 4DTB (For the time being), IMO (In my opinion), BTW (By the way), TTFN (Ta-ta for now), BCNU (Be seeing you), BRB (Be right back), F2F (Face to face), B2B (Business to business), B4 (before), HRU (How are you?), =0 (Surprised), >:0 (Angry), > (Smile), ; (Frown), :/ (Uncertain), …8 (Cool), ..\….(@) (a Rose), DBL (Don't be late), IDK (I don't know), NTB (Not too bad) etc etc., have become the obsession of this present generation usually known as Gen-Y.

They haven't tasted the charm of reading classic books or novels of great writers and poets. Reading a good book or novel by a great writer inspires, motivates and make us look at the bright side of things, make us courageous, brave, patriotic, compassionate etc.

But the dismal fact is that the present generation have not tasted, felt or experienced the charm and happiness of reading great books of great writers. In fact, some of them don't know the name of such great writers and their astounding literary works.

As a result, the youngsters of today score very low when it comes to literature which is really disappointing. It is a pity that they haven't got the real taste and the joy of reading great books written by great writers. Classic books are alien to them.

The future of literature and art hangs low as most of the youngsters are going for IT(Information Technology) and other hi-tech subjects.

In this present scenario, in every sphere or walks of life, possessing knowledge and ability of handling computer independently is mandatory. Now is the time where a person without computer knowledge is taken as illiterate however educated he/she may be. Now-a- days we can apply for a job on-line. Gone are the days where we have to wait for a letter for weeks or even months.

We can now read a mail from a friend or a relative at an instant through the Net. Open the Inbox through your E-mail ID and you may find a job offer from a firm which you applied a few hours ago.

Presently many firms such as monster.com shine.com, naukri.com etc., are coming up to man-hunt or woman-hunt to possess persons with expertise, talents, potential and experience that tailor and suit to the needs of big multinationals, big companies and big firms.

Such multinationals and other big companies are paying bucketful of bucks to such internet job-hunters to get the best incumbents which will be assets to them. In fact, internet has revolutionized the world in terms of instant communication and access to knowledge.

But there is always a limit. I hope the youngsters of Gen-Y give some real time to their family, peers and relatives and particularly to their own selves for getting too drowned in the virtual world may bring unwanted and unpleasant situations in real life in the days to come.