What's on your mind?
What are you doing? What are you listening to? What's your status? What's on your wall? What am I talking about? Well, I am talking about Media and how it is taken over our lives or atleast my life. I come from work and the first thing I do is switch on the TV. It is as if Mr. Obama on the news channel will solve all my problems. The next thing I do is switch on my computer and check my mails. After going through all the important mails and deleting junk, its time to move onto Facebook and reply to all the comments made on my status, photos, links, videos and the list goes on. Now its time to snoop into other people facebook pages and type my comments on their status, photos, links, videos and yet again the list goes on. Now that I have told everyone what's on my mind, its time to tell my twitter friends what am I doing. Mr Obama is here too encouraging me to volunteer in my community.
As I woke up today in the evening, I didn't switch on my TV and fought the urge to push the power button on my computer. I decided to sit on my couch and do nothing. It was hard work, doing nothing and my mind was racing from one thought to another but I sat there for almost 30 minutes doing nothing. What was on my mind? Lots of random thoughts. What was I doing? Trying to do Nothing. What was I listening to? My own thoughts.
I remember growing up in socialist India where we didn't had TV till I was almost 6 years old. The only media influence we had at home was the Akashwani Radio which I would listen for half an hour with my Mom when they will play the top ten songs of the week. The rest of the day, I would play with friends or do my homework. Then came the Black and White TV, which was an event in itself. Half the time we would be on our terrace trying to adjust the antenna to get a clear signal. I started spending more time infront of the Idiot box but was still bound by limited number of watchable shows. Then came the Color TVs and the cable channels and suddenly I had the power to choose the channel or the shows. VCR bought the cinema to my home and the value of another social event of going to movies diminished. Finally we got the computer and it gave all the power to me. Now with the advent of social media I am at a point where I interact more with people indirectly (through tweets and scraps) than directly (face to face or atleast voice to voice).
It is ironic that I am eventually using a social media, blog, to convey my annoyance at all the social media that have taken over my life. Although, it doesn't mean that after this post I will stop poking people on Facebook or stop twittering or scraping people on Orkut (remember Orkut?). This post is to remind myself to take atleast 30 minutes in a day and do nothing, to spend time with one's own thoughts and not to worry about, what's on my mind.
As I woke up today in the evening, I didn't switch on my TV and fought the urge to push the power button on my computer. I decided to sit on my couch and do nothing. It was hard work, doing nothing and my mind was racing from one thought to another but I sat there for almost 30 minutes doing nothing. What was on my mind? Lots of random thoughts. What was I doing? Trying to do Nothing. What was I listening to? My own thoughts.
I remember growing up in socialist India where we didn't had TV till I was almost 6 years old. The only media influence we had at home was the Akashwani Radio which I would listen for half an hour with my Mom when they will play the top ten songs of the week. The rest of the day, I would play with friends or do my homework. Then came the Black and White TV, which was an event in itself. Half the time we would be on our terrace trying to adjust the antenna to get a clear signal. I started spending more time infront of the Idiot box but was still bound by limited number of watchable shows. Then came the Color TVs and the cable channels and suddenly I had the power to choose the channel or the shows. VCR bought the cinema to my home and the value of another social event of going to movies diminished. Finally we got the computer and it gave all the power to me. Now with the advent of social media I am at a point where I interact more with people indirectly (through tweets and scraps) than directly (face to face or atleast voice to voice).
It is ironic that I am eventually using a social media, blog, to convey my annoyance at all the social media that have taken over my life. Although, it doesn't mean that after this post I will stop poking people on Facebook or stop twittering or scraping people on Orkut (remember Orkut?). This post is to remind myself to take atleast 30 minutes in a day and do nothing, to spend time with one's own thoughts and not to worry about, what's on my mind.
posted by fursat at 11:13 PM
11 Comments:
Nothing :P
Well finally a post. Let me read it....
LOL...nice post! My life's also pretty much mirrors yours in this sense. Except that with the iPhone I am on Facebook almost all day long! I tried my hand at twittering long time ago, but I couldnt handle the pressure of updating it every so often. So for me, FB works well.
Hopefully with the weather warming up, I'll spend more of my evenings outside than in front of the TV/Comp
:) Hmm. Thats a great idea. Come to think of it, i was not on facebook till day before yesterday, i hardly get to watch the teleivsion and i do not have an internet connection on my laptop at home so that saves me from net browsing at night.
However, i blog and i am in front of the comp for at least 12-13 hours at work so that basically means whatever little time i have, i SLEEP!
But there were orkut days and TV days earlier.. and i an completely relate to what you are trying to convey. Smile @ adjust the antenna... Nostalgic.
Sorry for the Blah. As i said, this's one of the social media i avidly use nowadays. Hence.
:)
Nice here.
Ashen
Hey Ricky... Well expressed! Well, it is a sad truth that today our social life is restricted to virtual world......
That's why sometimes, I don't switch on TV for a day in a week ( can't miss roadies though!) and I prefer reading to watching TV.
but what u've said is true, I turn to virtual world to seek comfort or celebrate..that's kind of dangerous. but one more thing is that, i am alone most of the times, so this is the only thing I can do..
aha..what a post! :)
but then, most of the people i care about, including my family are far, far away..if these sites give me an inexpensive way to stay in touch, why not..
I was thinking about your post.. yeah, we all have stopped receiving letters..that's one thing I miss, I used to write letter to my cousins every week.. I have at least 300 letters with me. Mostly next generation will think that we were born in pre-civilization era, when we did not have Internet..we are THAT old
so true. Social media has become a way of living. Sometimes we tend to overdo it...for sure!!But as far as I know you, you are an aware netizen and use your resources pretty intelligently, and that's something now.
Understanding the psyche of social media users is so interesting, n u chalked a typical day pretty much perfectly. Excessive dependence of any source is for sure not advisable, so ur 30 mins a day funda sounds wise:)
I rem orkut;) sort of hate it now!!
n facebook has begun to annoy me too, n twitter gets on my nerves.
But you know what, I still am so glued to all of them... I dont understand what we really want anymore..Is it just the habit of connecting by any means, or something more impulsive than tht...?
very true we are not sparing time for self in thi busy busy busy life. I am missing that very much these days! ..adjusting the antenna.. hehe i still remember how messy the crows near our house used to be, they perch and fly and we go running to adjust it..sh**.. crow sh**
do you actually think that Major Kiyanai of exploding mangoes is the General Kiyani? Really?
Interesting
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