OUR TRIUMPHANTLY DIGITIZED WORLD

2020 was a year were everything was digital! I, a person ADDICTED to technology, experienced a little irritation when i had to do EVERYTHING ONLINE. School. Friends. Even books! And thus, I got the idea to write about TECHNOLOGY. I believe that most of the people who are reading thus blog are born in 21st century. Lucky, huh? Why?  Because this century brought with it so many shortcuts, so many comforts into our life. And by the word COMFORT, I mean TECHNOLOGY! This world is triumphantly digitized by us humans. Letters are replaced by Gmail and Whatsapp. Telephones are replaced with mobile phones. Books are replaced the internet and much, much more. TECHNOLOGY BRINGS WITH IT BOTH UPSIDES AND DOWNSIDES. Let's start with the upsides- 

1) COMMUNICATION WHENEVER YOU WISH

 

There used to be a time when, if u wanted to talk with someone, you had to wait for a looooonnngggg time for the telephone. No video calls😢😢. You wanted to see their face, the only option was the REAL FACE TO FACE TALK. Real sad right?

You wanted to write to them, you had to write a letter. And again, wait for a loooonnnggg time for the letter to reach them, them to write, and their replied letter to come back to you. Now? The process has shortened a lot. I literally mean A LOOOOT! Open whatsapp or hangouts or signal or any other chatting app. Type the message, wait for the message to deliver, them to read it, and the reply to come back. All this will be done in minutes! And, if by your bad luck, you forgot to mention something important in your letter, well... you gotta write a second letter. And that's another lengthy wait! Communication seems easy in this generation, doesn't it? (Honestly, I'm really grateful. I tried to write a letter and the process was tooooooo long. A long wait for the response too. How did they manage at that time, I don't know🤷)

2) A PORTABLE ENCYCLOPEDIA- EDUCATIONAL USES

By 'Portable Encyclopedia' , I am referring to the vast Internet. Let me ask you a question- What is Schrödinger's cat? Do you know what it is? Well if you don't, I'm sure you must have Googled it! Didn't you? This was what I was talking about. If you don't know the answer to a question or have doubts about it, you can search it up on the Internet. And so many E-books! (A lot of experience with this. I Google things too much🙆😬😬. I forgot the decimal value of pi, I didn't even bother to open my textbook, I directly googled it😂) Alas, there was a time when Google didn't exist. You had a doubt? Ask your teacher. Or open your book, navigate through pages and search for the answer. Time taking, right? And you couldn't carry so many books with you all the time. And the Calculator app, you don't have to solve everything on paper now! Now, carry your phone. It's practically the same thing. 

3) TECHNOLOGY- ABOUT TIME (pun intended😝)

Technology has indeed helped us to measure time, may it be in Calendars, Alarms, Timers and many more! You can mark important days on your Google Calendar now, you will receive a message on that day notifying you. Wanna wake up early tomorrow? No biggie! Set an alarm on your phone. Want to see how much time you took to solve a rubix cube? Use the stopwatch feature. Wanna know what time it is at Munich now? Add the Munich region in the Region Clock and check the time there! All of this, on one single device. Easy to balance everything here right? 

4) ENTERTAINMENT

A few decades ago, there weren't many options in TV shows and movies. DoorDarshan was the only channel. Limited amount of movies, only aired at a particular time. 1 TV per house. The whole family sits together to watch a show. You missed an episode? You missed it! You couldn't watch it again on your phone. Why? Easy. There weren;t any phones at that time! Now? Watch any movie, any series, listen to any song on whatever device you wish and whenever you wish. Catch? Just have a  subscription for those particular apps. Just think once. How many OTT platforms do we have? Answer is WAYYY TOO MANY! Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Zee5, SunNxt and aha!(Telugu) , Hulu, Eros Now,  ALT Balaji, MX Player and many, many, many more! Music? Spotify, Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Pandora, YouTube Music, Soundcloud etc.... Got my point?? So many choices!

 (My mom told me about her experience with TV in the old days, the limited choices, the punctuality you had to keep if you had to watch the show and all. I was SHOCKED! Like, WHAT? HOW? And now, I am grateful for the options I have.😶)

5) SHOPPING MADE EASIER

Amazon. Flipkart. Myntra. Ajio. JioMart. Big Basket. Online Shopping is a term we are all familiar with. It's something we do to pass our time, or to shop some essentials. Stay wherever you are, search the item you want to shop, order it, and you will get it delivered to your location in a few days. No fuss. Many options? Check. Home Delivery? Check. Branded items? Check. Discounts? Also check. Well, it has fulfilled the main pointers of shopping. Technology has allowed you to shop for items right where you are! Don't even need to move a finger.( Okay, that was an idiomatic expression. Of course you need your finger to shop😂) 

Now, I'll start with the downsides -

1) EYE DAMAGE

Let me start with the most obvious downside of technology. I am 100% sure that your parents must have advised you- "Don't stare at your phone/laptop/tablet for soooo long. You'll get glasses!" Well, yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, I do this too, and yes, I get the same advice from my parents😝. I get kinda angry when they mention this but I thought about it and yes, they were correct. The rays all these devices emit are harmful for your eyes. After a day of using your phone or laptop, anything for the next 5 minutes will appear blurry. Your eyes get strained. 

2)  ADDICTION

Did you ever have this moment that you wanted to stare into your device the whole day cause it was so interesting? I'm pretty sure you'll answer YES. (Don't worry, I am answering with that too😆) There are lot of interesting things on your electronic devices which causes addiction! Did you know that phones let out this type of morphine chemical into the brain which causes ADDICTION. You will not wanna put it back and do something else. ADDICTION LEADS TO DISTRACTION. When you are studying, and your phone is just beside you, you feel the urge to put your book down and look at your phone. You'll think "Just 5 mins." But 5 minutes leads to 10. 10 to 20. 20 to 30 and so on. And before you know it, a loooooooooooong time has passed and you didn't study at all.... 

3) AFFECTS IMAGINATION AND CREATIVITY

Studies have proved that continuous use of devices led to the stunting/destruction of creativity. Yes, there used to be a time when, if we were bored, we'd make pillow houses or jump on our couches thinking the floor was lava. Yes, there used to be a time when, if a kid was bored, he/she would look around their surroundings and try to draw them. Now? Nah! Children open their tabs and phones and start playing games. Their creativity is GONE!

4)  BODY -ACHES AND HARMFUL POSTURES

Use of various electronic devices can affect your body posture a lot. Like, when you are using your laptop and you are lying on the bed in a very weird posture. These postures are harmful, especially for children or teenagers. Such postures can also cause body aches for a long time. 

5) BYE FRIENDS! BYE FAMILY!

This is the last point, but the biggest disadvantage of Digitalization. Remember the 2010s? Your friends and you playing hide & seek, ball, Tipri, Anatakshari, Dumb Charades and other games for hours and hours! Oh what fun! And while eating dinner with your family, you have a nice chat with your parents and/or siblings about everything that took place that day. You would also spend some quality time with your mom/dad playing with them too. Now, children aren't playing games with each other much; they are playing games on devices. The children aren't talking much with their parents, they'll watch TV. 

So, these were some advantages and disadvantages of technology. Now, I ask you- " Is this TRIUMPHANTLY DIGITIZED WORLD actually good?" Not completely. Technology was brought into this world to bring separated people closer, not to separate close people. Technology was brought into this world to reduce hand strain while writing long letters, not to strain your whole body. Technology was brought into this world as a boon, not as a curse. The intentions of digitalizing the world weren't wrong, the way we are using it is. Yes, technology has replaced letters. Yes, it has replaced books. Yes, it has replaced telephones. But, that doesn't mean you have to stop doing some things in the traditional way too! Utilise technology, but don't forget the roots. Utilise technology, but never, ever overuse it. KNOW YOUR LIMITS. KNOW YOUR PRIORITIES. KNOW THAT YOU SHOULDN'T ALWAYS BE DEPENDENT ON TECHNOLOGY. 

Also, I changed the  profile pic and theme. Let me know if you like it😀.

Signing off,

Jhanvi Pendyala