Click of the mouse {Revathi Raj Iyer)

It was somewhere in the late nineties that internet and emails had started to excite people in India. Although a snail paced start with dial up connects to the internet, there was a childlike thrill to see a page on the web unfold and then several of them, one after the other, as we kept on clicking our mouse. This invariably caused a choke up and the connection would be disrupted leaving us to reboot all over again. There were times when the dial up will simply refuse to connect. No matter what, we had oodles of tolerance because we were too eager to adapt, hence happy to wait, click and again wait for the information to populate, for that eureka moment – the yahoo page. At that time this was the only search engine. The first ‘test check email’ that was sent to all those who had the luxury to access the net never failed to the greeting, “welcome to the wired world.”

Thus began a new era, a major breakthrough in information technology and since then there has been no looking back. Writing letters and that weekly drive to the post office started fading from most people’s agenda. All it took was a mere click of the mouse, then why go through the rigours of letter writing?

A decade thereafter the human race got even more excited with the splendour of the social media which had slowly started surfacing with Orkut, Bebo and Hi5, until Facebook outstripped all these and totally captivated us, not to mention twitter alongside, enabling those short and sweet tweets. All this further enthralled us. We got connected to our long lost friends, colleagues relatives and so on….and merrily got onto the bandwagon.

The giant leap that further changed the entire scene was the spectrum and mobile revolution. Smart phones are now our life line and our loyalty to the social network has grown rock solid. Sms is considered old fashioned and tedious, with the influx of newer applications like what's app, face time, viber etc that too free of cost. Sharing daily happenings has become the order of the day. 

The world has actually shrunk giving birth to newer friendships with our electronic way of life. We rely on emoticons to convey our momentary expressions and feelings and then move on with our lives. Unwittingly, this may have made many of us less sensitive to actual emotions.

I am one of the victims of this hijack by the social media, but occasionally do make an effort to pick up the phone and talk to a friend. But sooner or later, we fall into the same trap and go back to the app mode and once again the phone stops ringing, except for the online shopping delivery boys or couriers asking for directions to the house.

The next generation is pretty clear headed, indeed. They love the social media and have learnt to maximize it to their advantage, both professionally and personally by factoring in this distraction with their time management skills. Fair share of credit needs to be given to those parents, as well, who ensured that internet was prudently used by their children. Sure! There are aids and filters but tactful supervision without upsetting the children is an added parental responsibility. Remember they were also discovering the internet along with their children.

The older generation, our parents, uncles and aunts were very curious to know and understand all about internet and social media; however they never stopped bonding with neighbours, friends and relatives on a regular basis. They loved their old ways. By and large, they have accepted the change in so far as to keep in touch with their children and grandchildren via emails and skype chats. They want to go no further and have defined their boundaries, made their choice.

We, the sandwich generation, have been fortunate to witness the best of both worlds. We want to own and learn about every new toy that hits the market, in our eagerness to move on with the changing times. This is not about being right or wrong, it is our choice. Well! Generation gap is not something we wish to hear.

Sometimes, I do wonder if the time has come for us to re-define our boundaries, breakaway from this overwhelming social media rigmarole and get really social in the true sense of the term. Are we losing something here? I would love to hear the voice of my readers to this poser.

But there is one thing I must acknowledge; as the world waits to see what the next revolution is going to be, I have to make a hard choice-“to be part of it or not to be.”