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l have been inundated with an outpouring of comments on my opinion on Facebook. Really, none of my other which I would consider more worthy pieces, have ever elicited such a response. I seem to have hit some nerve - raw or ripe - of many who are caught in the web that the `social utility` website has spun. I am just amazed that despite having strong sentiments regarding its many negative facets, people are still riveted to it as if it`s a life line which if they let go would spin everyone into darkness.
I realised that it is social obscurity that has people running to join in any and every popular forum. And since everyone cannot make it to the television to `be seen` the internet is a great second option of being an entity and to connect with a wide social audience. In fact connectivity via Facebook type portals is much more intimate - so much so that you even know when the other person is eating lunch and when they are visiting the loo!
The stamina of keeping up with constant communication amazes me. The continuous flow of opinions, loose talk and crude bitching in the form of blogs, emails and painstakingly made power point documents show an obsessive need of every aficionado making a point on any and every subject. Particularly in Pakistan the trend of `opining` has spiraled out of control. With the television now offering countless channels, every Tom, Dick & Harry and Jane, Anne & Mary (or Tariq, Danish, Hamid and Jannat, Ayesha and Mariam if you`d rather I localised it!) has an avenue of screaming their gullets sore on some issue or the other.
While every host has donned the insolent persona of Tim Sebastian thinking that the ruder; the better, every talk show guest comes armed with a verbal whip that he/she lashes out at every opportunity. The din resonating from the idiot box has finally justified the nickname given to TV. An idiot box, breeding idiocy in every form. As to the audience, it is actually sad to see them lap up all the uncouthness radiating from TV which they devour perhaps to assuage their own pugnacious instincts. It`s a decaying mesh of jabbering maniacs feeding on a voyeuristic audience which sits in their lounges probably chanting, `kill, kill`!
And while the penchant for being acclaimed as a person of consequence and freely voicing high flown judgments is high, manners to conduct any conversation are non existent. When the Internet and television do not fulfill people`s garrulous needs, the infernal cell phone comes in to create a cacophony when it is least needed. Poor Graham Bell must be turning in his grave on the form his prized invention has taken. He, whose family worked on elocution and speech and the fact that his deaf mother and wife led him to research on instruments of hearing, could not rest in peace to know what a rude piece of equipment his creation has turned into.
Come hail or high water, people now feel compelled to talk on their cell phones. Again their innate fear of having life leave them behind urges a continuous communication even if there is a blaring `silence please` sign staring them in the face. The other day at a theatre where some wonderfully well acted plays were in progress cell phones kept ringing in every ill-bred ring tone imaginable. Despite the organisers` repeated plea before the play began to `strangle the phone` during the performance, countless members of the audience disregarded the norm and had their phone bell on `loud`. There was a gentleman actually sitting in the first row, audaciously having a loud conversation during the enactment. Etiquette be damned, was probably his motto! Another boorish gentleman sitting in front of me was actually emailing from his Blackberry throughout the performance. And at every message received, the phone would make an irritatingly choking sound.
Will the world die if we are not available to everyone all the time? What is this mania of constant communication? The world progressed in leaps and bounds before the cell phone, the net and the cable TV was anywhere on the horizon. And it will still continue if one individual does not talk on the phone while sitting in a theatre. The obsessive need to be in constant connection is only ruining the quality of our existence in times which are already too traumatic.
Having an hour`s meaningful discussion with your child about his future aims and ambitions will far outweigh the profits that a market player might make by using his Blackberry even on a vacation. Despite that usage, he will still not be able to stop the financial meltdown. And better than finding out what a fellow Facebookite has lately posted on the `wall` would be to go cuddle up with your spouse/parent/child. It so doesn`t make sense to me to spend time on virtual activity with virtual contacts rather than showing real love to real people in real time.
