Smart Men Don't Need The Smart Phone

How high are you on social networking?

Hey, are you active on FB?

Are you there on Whatsapp?

Hey check out this app!

I have been hearing just too much of these questions everyday.

There is a theory known as the theory of existence of opposites. The great theory of contradiction states that for everything good, there must exist something equally bad; for everything beautiful, there must exist something equally ugly. You can't have friends without a few enemies. Going by this theory, the network that is social has the potential to transform us into anti-social beings as well. We all are. Its just about our rankings now.

The other day, I was at the bus-stop to go to the next town for a project assignment. I observed that every one there stood faces down staring into their so-called 'smart-'phones. Some seemed to be lost in the enchanted web (yes, the worldwide web) and appeared as if the apocalypse was minutes away and he is the officer in-charge. Some others were rigorously stroking the screens as if a genie would just emerge from within the phone and grant their wishes. A girl at my diagonal end was the most hilarious. An alert tone from her phone and out came a loud giggle. She seemed to me as the one who has had a lethal dose of the technopium. The men and women around were prompted to look at this teenager, but, were soon absorbed back into their phones in a fraction of a second. I too have a phone which has lost some of his 'smartness' after he slipped from the edge of a table few weeks back. So, I'm running low on my interest-quotient in my phone.

I've never been immune from the social networking bug. I'm chronically smitten. A couple of days back, I saw a cartoon on my FB newsfeed showing a desperate selfie-o-maniac getting slapped by her own smartphone. Since then, I have always been having this wierd imagination in my mind about - what if smartphones were living? How would it be to know that your smartphone does have feelings? We live in the era of supercomputers, superdromes and artificial intelligence. When we can have high-end processors and yotta byte devices inside our pockets, are we realizing that we are redefining the meanings of friendship and relationships? Yes, the phones have got too smart!

I have many friends on the web whom I have never met or talked to. They are my e-friends.Friendships these days are just a mouse-click away. Its said that the best friendship is the one that matures over time. My colleague seemed so happy that day for having unblocked her stalker on FB. She had no surprise or emotion of any sort to know that the stalker was none other than her academic senior in the same institution. That was what I call e-separation. On a higher grade, one can have e-breakups, e-divorces, e-this' and e-thats. I'm not trying to be an anti-social by criticizing the social networking habit. But, how much have we prioritized upon this leisure activity? Rather, has it assumed the status of a daily activity more than leisure? I find people constantly online. I drop them a text to see if they are alive there or the app is running in the background. But prompt comes their reply to my test.

I think its time all of us get a rehab. A withdrawal therapy from the gruelling social network monotone. Technopium can precipitate huge dependency. But its never too late for a withdrawal. That gives you an opportunity to explore into the happier depths of reality. The real life you breathe in.

Think.