Information Overkill
Qasid ke ate ate khat eik aur likh rakhon, Mein Janta Hon Jo Yo Likhein Ge Jawab Mein
And so mused Mirza Ghalib in the romantic eighteenth century. Here in 2007, not only do I know instantly when my email has been received, I also know when someone is typing a response in my chat window, how long they have been online or what their calendar looks like for the next 8 hrs. Gone are the days of yearning, and speculation, welcome to the new world of brutal facts and undeniable reality.
When someone very wise once said that ignorance is bliss, why did we not listen to them and agree to it as an absolute truth? Why did we have to open our lives to complete and utter scrutiny by others and win balcony seats into their lives? The high way of communication these days thanks to websites like orkut, facebook, myspace, youtube, blogspot etc takes us into everyone’s living room on the fast track.
Gone are the days when you had to wonder for years what an ex crush has been upto, all information on him/her is a few strokes on google away. Next time you are bored try doing a google on your name. You will be amazed how far your electronic foot prints have traveled.
Often we read romantic, funny, inspirational and historical letters written by great poets, writers and leaders. These were written with consideration, received with anticipation and preserved with love. What will we leave behind when we die? When someone will go through the paper work of our lives, will they only find credit card bill statements, bland season greeting cards by distant work acquaintances and atm slips? Most of our life history is now digitally preserved, on the laptop maybe, in the forms of emails, pictures, writings and thoughts preserved, locked away by a password and secret question answer or on a mobile, in the form of sms, contacts, and pictures. While the forms of saving memories have changed so have their durability, a laptop is prone to a system crash and a mobile to theft.
Dont get me wrong, I dont wish to ride on a camel everyday to my office in a tent on a desert. I appreciate modern inventions like air conditioning, transportation, deodorants and permanent hair straightening. Though I do wish that every time I get a letter it is not from a bank and that the only calls on the landline are not for the servants. I am uncomfortable with the romance taken out of every situation in the instant solution world that we live in today.
You no longer have to dread bumping into those horrible smug people when you venture out and them making you feel horrible and under-accomplished about your life. For those who choose to, there are immense opportunities to flaunt your current disposition in life online, be it a new job, new baby, new apartment or a new hair do. News now does not reach you through a phone call by a friend or a chance meeting over the coffee machine, you can sniff out the news yourself online, proudly displayed for the whole world to see. How do you brace your own self from a self directed punch?
In a world of information overkill where mediocrity is a non-selling commodity, are we forcing people to blow their emotions out of proportion to gain attention? Of course, if I am the director of my own Prime Time show and the whole world comes to watch, it better be worth their while.
This is tremendous writing. My only problem with this is it’s too short. Leaves me wanting more.
You’re echoing my thoughts so precisely it’s not even funny anymore. I’ve come to hate the fact that I don’t have any letter preserved from my past…except a few that I put away and forgot. The fact that you quoted Ghalib makes me pleased and satisfied. Thank goodness, there are still some ppl out there who can read Urdu.
Please continue writing on these contemporary issues. You’re doing a great job.
9.5/10
Thanks for your feedback usman, really appreciate it!
there is a reason this article is short. These were thoughts in my head that i wanted to share, and leave them as questions with the readers,
im glad to see it worked
Well said. A very interesting take on the recent social networking phenomenon that has hit the Internet in the past few years. I suppose this phenomenon creates more problems for girls than guys, I can recall at least a dozen scrapbooks of girls on orkut that have people writing scraps of the following nature:
“hi abc, my name is xyz, Do you want Friendship with me !”
Great writing. You have observed something that may just be the best portrayal of how our lives are becoming compact and self-centered. You have a phenomenal grasp of your ideas and a fascinating way to narrate them. The fact that you are actually voicing your opinion about something that many people feel, but are hesitant to discuss is truly impressive.
Some years ago, I stopped writing emails, then stopped writing much of anything at all.
You express the cause so succinctly:
“How do you brace your own self from a self directed punch?
In a world of information overkill where mediocrity is a non-selling commodity, are we forcing people to blow their emotions out of proportion to gain attention? Of course, if I am the director of my own Prime Time show and the whole world comes to watch, it better be worth their while.”
Well I must say it was a treat looking up your articles and reading them. I for one miss the romance that was found in books like Persuasion, and life stories of people like Ghalib.
By the way, Ghalib’s first deewan (considered half his work) was burnt in a fire, so all we have is the one deewan that starts with “naqsh faryaadi hai…”. So system crashes I guess have a long history!