An average person checks his/her phone 116 times a day and smartphone users check facebook 14 times a day. If these statistics don't shock you, then you must know that almost 79% of the smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up and the rest of the day follows with facebook, whatsapp messaging, tweeting, skyping, facetiming and instagramming.

When I moved to a new country 9 years ago, social media was a bliss for me which helped me overcoming my homesickness to an extent by keeping me connected with my family and friends in India. I could see them in real time and could participate in any family activity even by sitting 50,000 miles away.

USE and ABUSE

There is always a fine line between using and abusing the technology. It should only be used to access what is inaccessible, not to make us slackers and dependent on it. If it has connected the world and narrowed the geographical boundaries, it has also created a sense of disconnection.

Do you think your number of facebook friends determine your real friends in life? Do you have time for all of them? Do you really cherish your friendship with all of them?

The quality of relationships has changed over the years due to the impact of technology. Since I have seen the time before smartphones ruined the relationships, I think people were more considerate towards each other and relationships used to have personal touch. Instead of just interacting online via social media platforms, people would actually meet and conversed happily more often. They would put time and energy in building long lasting relationships. Relationships back then would not end just by unfriending someone on facebook, unfollowing someone on twitter or blocking someone on instagram.

Photo credit: scoop.it

Conversations have nearly died at the dinner table when everyone is paying attention to their smartphones and not to their family. An emoticon of hug, smile and surprise is never going to justify your emotions than if they are expressed in person. Also, misunderstandings are easily created during online conversations because non-verbal communications never justify the arguments and claims.

The video embedded below is a lesson for all of us to not indulge our coming generations into this black hole of technology. Instead of regretting it later that our children lack empathy and don't have time for us, let us nip this evil in the bud and let them not be emotionless. The least we can do to not let them turn into emotionless robots, is to keep them away from technological gadgets as long as we can unless they really need them.




Undoubtedly, the technology has shrunk the world but it has widened the distances in the relationships. The onus is again on us to make a fair judgement on when and how to use it and to always keep it in mind that "Man has created a machine and not machine created a man". Let's just remain human instead of robots keeping our personal touch and sentiments alive.