Aren’t we just human?
We are in an era where you believe that everything is working the way it should, be it the ease of seeing where your taxi is waiting for you or to be able to spot the last place you probably lost your phone, to the last time a person saw your message.
And yet! It has its pitfalls.
Its just made us impatient, a wee bit more aggressive and lose sight of ordinary things.
The thing is, now every action is defined by what your phone or your social media handle tells you.
In fact, you may want to ponder if you ever lose some of your best relationships because of your technological inclination or your smart generation practices. Why? Simple, one tends, to believe the what’s app ‘timestamp’ rather than the person. It happens to me, and most definitely I notice that some of my friends do it as well.
Most of the time when a what’s app message comes in, my watch tells me, and I just glance at it. It records that I have seen it and relays it to the sender that I have seen, but users will agree with me that it is not necessarily reading the message.
Like nowadays I stand up when my watch tells me and, when I am in an exhaustive meeting, I am wondering if my watch is going instruct me to “Breathe.”
Yes, the next question, then why do you sync it on your watch, well, that is my business don’t you think? When I give the privilege of letting the other person know of how many hours I was on Facebook or when I saw a person’s linked-in profile, should I not have the privilege of seeing what I want to see?
Anyway, the point is that simple pleasures in life and simple things that we usually give way for is over-amplified in this age.
Case in point, how many times have we sent a message to someone, then checked if they have seen the message, hang on to what’s app for a bit to see if they are responding, for like ten secs, max 30 sec and then you can’t pursue anything.
Why? Because you start by going back to your message, re-read what you typed, analyze it for English, spellos, wrong emoji or if the message was to the point. All in the assumption that the other person has read it and ignored it, confused or you made things awkward.
Oh! Come on! Not just me; I think this is what we have become.
It’s that era of “I have spoken; I need your response”, I don’t care if a bus ran over you, or you got into a plane, or your phone ran out of battery, or you are on another call, you have seen it, you have to respond.
Then you start extrapolating the time it took for you to send the message, the last glance the person has seen it, the time it takes to respond, and the time they have chosen not to answer. The data is precise, and you even pronounce the verdict- unfriend!
That precisely, my friend, is how a computer should behave and not a real human being.
I am thinking aloud if the phone becomes our friend, philosopher, and guide and social media become the real world we live.
It’s a very comfortable scenario, and of course, its real world out there that we gauge everything in the light of what you posted last, where you holidayed recently or who you became friends with eight years back or how you looked in your profile pic four years back. Or who is doing what?
Growth tracked on LinkedIn, family bonding based on inter-family likes and comments, happiness guaranteed on how many friends you have and your justification of how much you love thanks to the overtly emotional birthday wishes spouses post for each other on Facebook.
Suddenly it is not what you believe or what you think or what is right for you but what others acknowledge!
And somewhere down the line did the Generation Xers accuse the older generations of living for society! And it was ok to be different, speak their mind and be merry.
And what are the millennial’s doing now … ROFL!
Oh! I guess, as long as there are more likes its ok…WOW!
The Author is the CEO and Founder of BLU
Brand Leverage United (BLU), a Singapore based Brand and Communication Consultancy and a certified Personal Brand Strategist. She writes what touches her and what inspires her or something that is relevant to be taken note off. She focuses on Brands both products and people. All views are her own and do not represent any organization
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