Cigar,Liquor,Drugs these are the addictions which we heard about a lot since last century, but now a days they have a competition & these oldies may not survive against the new kind of addiction & may have already loose their Market Share!!
I call this new Entrant - The Digital Addiction...
First of all let me tell you that I am not against Technology as it has made Human life more comfortable and also easy up to certain extent.
But what is the balance point of Technology which can be a healthy balance to prevent us from becoming more like a Robot than Human.
For example now a days when we see people around us, usually everyone's head is down on their Smart Phone and majority of them look like tired, anxious & constantly surfing for the next exciting thing in order to find a Solace but a never ending search!!!
So the million dollar question is are we really happy with what we are doing or just finding some distraction now & then just like the old addiction which are also not healthy but kept the addict out of reality for a while.
Many people tell they are gaining Entertainment out of their Smartphones, but how much entertainment is needed? 1 hr, 2hr, 3hr? & are we really happy/relaxed after the so called Entertainment? & what we could have done during those hours??
May be something meaningful & productive.
Are we not comfortable with ourselves when are we are alone?? Try to switch off the phone & lockup yourself in a Room for 1 hour & you will realize what I mean.
When the Smartphones were not around what we were usually doing? Meetings with Family/Friends, Playing Outdoor Games, Paying attention to our hobbies, Reading some good books, Creating/Setting new Goals etc.
But with invent of Smartphone we always spend our spare time on our Mobile phone which we can utilize in other way.
No doubt there are many features which are really helpful in our day to day life but on an average how much time we are really spending on utilizing the Smartphone instead of doing some time pass activity?
Mostly 90% of the time we are doing non-productive activities on our phone which generally sometime increase our information base/Entertain us but real useful knowledge which can capitalize in a Productive way is almost NIL.
And now a days Children are also gone crazy about all this gazets, off course they learn many things from it but majority of their time are spent on Social Networking Sites, Video Watching, Gaming etc.. which are not so much useful in their Formative years.
So if we want to create more time for Family & Friends and most importantly for ourselves then we must strike a balance such as we use the phone as & when really required and not the other way round.
As the Buddha says "The Problem is we think we have Time". And by the time we realize how much time we have wasted, it can be too late.
So try to live the life & not becoming information junky or Robot who always wants to be online for outside world but offline for Family/Friends & most importantly for one's own self.
Only provide some designated time when you check your Tech Toys & spend rest of the time with your family/Friends & most importantly with yourself otherwise the Addictive demons will catch you & move you away from Reality to Virtual Reality till the time you can not differentiate what is Real & what is Virtual...
Ponder your thought as well on the issue.
I would like conclude with the below lines from Oscar Wilde:
"To Live is the rarest thing in the World. Most People exist, that is all"
Have a Happy life...