It appears that we are slowly
trusting technology more as an effective tool to trust human beings. We are
driven by our passion for technology, which makes us believe that we can form
good bonds with people. In this pursuit, we don’t trust ourself to act as a
bridge in forming human bonds. As a result, technology is becoming dominant
over our lives, and we are becoming its slave. We feel restless when we don’t
see mobile phone in our hand. That restlessness is not so much evident when our
near and dear ones are not with us. We tend to trust that electronic
communication will help us maintain strong contacts with them. We don’t feel
the necessary urge to see them in front of us. We also don’t make efforts to
visit them. We feel that it will be merely a wastage of time. We think that why
not utilize the limited time by surfing on the social networking sites?
The first thing we search for religiously
in the morning, is our mobile phone, prayers come after that, forget the people
who are with us. Social networking sites, and other applications are becoming
our obsession. When we travel, we don’t
make efforts to talk to the people, and develop bonds. Instead,
we depend on technology to build up contacts with others. We are oblivious of
our immediate environment, where we see other people themselves busy with their
mobile phone. So, why should we take any initiative in making efforts to engage
in conversations? The same thing is visible in parties, conferences, events, etc
where many people tend to withdraw from making conversations on the pretext
that they are busy with their phones. This lazy approach in depending on
technology does not help in building up strong heart-to-heart bonds. We tend to
believe that why make unnecessary efforts in intermingling with people of
different temperaments, so we take recourse to technology to hide our inabilities
to accept different kinds of people. As a result, we are not able to nurture our relationships. A
layer of superficiality is clearly visible, which makes others also realise
that through electronic communication, we are just maintaining formality in our
relationship.
At work-place, even for internal
communication, we depend on electronic form, instead of making efforts to visit
our colleagues. In conflicting situations, this approach doesn’t resolve the
issues, as our egos destroy the chance of conflict resolution as we avoid making face-to-face conversation with
a strong desire for genuine dialogue. For an organisation’s external communication, we have a strong
feeling that electronic communication will be sufficient to achieve our purpose. But, we
are mistaken. I feel personal visits are important in many of the cases to
enhance an organisations’s profile, or achieve the project targets. Electronic
communication can be successful here only if the self-motivated human efforts
are made in taking pains to visit people.
The politicians are making these
days frenetic efforts to utilise electronic communication to build up their
popularity amongst the people. They don’t make efforts to personally visit the
people in their constitutency, and form one-to-one contact. As a result, I
feel, the trust level of the people in the politicians does not nurture. Electronic
communication can only be a momentary way to win over the hearts of the people.
The long-term benefits can be maintained only if the politicians show their
sincerity in making visits, and follow up with the people. The people today are
smart to understand the limits of electronic communication, as it can be used to create a situation, which at the
ground-level does not exist.
I think the tendency to trust on
technology, and not in us is limiting the growth of our personalities. I feel our
full potentialities can emerge only if we speak, express and maintain face-to-face
contacts through our inner urge to indulge in sincere heart-to –heart dialogue.
Our presence itself can create an effective aura which can attract people around
us, so that ever-lasting relationships are built upon which can give a real joy
in life. Technology can hide our inabilities, biases in personality etc, which
can only hamper our personal growth, as a result of which we are not able to
learn, and evolve. If we continue to be dictated by technology, then we will
merely become mechanical robots. So, let
us develop the right wisdom to use
technology judiciously.
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