Technological creations have replaced human relations; the more time we are getting, the more asocial we are becoming
Post-industrial society has brought about some very significant technology-driven changes in lifestyles. Two most crucial of them in terms of impact have been the rise in social distance and leisure. Technology has definitely contributed to this. Productivity has grown manifold and we produce more and more goods and services with less and less. In the process we have gained time. Free time or leisure as we may choose to name. But wait a moment; try calling to somebody close seeking for an audience. You can easily guess what will be the standard replyIJ It will be an apologetic: “I am keeping very busy and have no time.”
Time then proves to be the greatest constraint of modern living. Despite rise in leisure time. Intriguing, yes. What has gone wrong, can’t say. But the paradox stays. And brings along with it all its attendant appendages, undesirable though. look what is happening. A shrieking headline in a main line daily reads: “Grave crisis: 158 per cent rise in rapes by juveniles.” Pick up any newspaper or switch on any news channel, this is what you get: heart-rending, obnoxious, perniciously flashy headlines.
In fact, as a stress management trainer, I now advice my audiences to avoid reading newspapers or watching new channels before bed time. They are depressing and result in disturbed sleep. Globalisation, they say, has brought growth and prosperity and made more quality time available to people in the form of leisure. Don’t we need to introspect and examine if this was the growth and prosperity, and quality time we longed forIJ GDPs are definitely on the rise and so are many more things. Most of them are undesirable like crime, divorce, poverty, and unemployment rates — and the list continues.
Downsizing and is the new catch phrase to be used by the highly admired CEOs of big multinationals who enjoy larger than life reputations and are the new age role models. If growth means joblessness and disempowerment, no growth is certainly a more desirable option. Where have we gone wrongIJ Why is there no time despite increasingly more leisureIJ We have gradually withdrawn ourselves into a cocoon created by our false sense of empowerment, resulting in bloated ego that technological sophistication has led to.
Technological creations have replaced human relations. The more time we are getting, the more asocial we are becoming. And from asocial the logical course is towards antisocial. Matrimony is losing sanctity and we have some very interesting nomenclatures related to families these days. There are the SINKS (single income no kids) and DINKS (double income no kids) families, and there are online families where husband and wife busy with their jobs at distanced cities have only electronic devices as means of connectivity.
Technology is making people motionless and emotionless. And results are not good on three critical health counts — physical, mental and social. While tech-savvy CEOs are turning towards consultants to learn new ways of employee engagement, they are forgetting the basic lesson that an empty mind is a devil’s workshop. It is time to rethink and recreate — both in workplace and society.
The writer is a professor, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com