Is Our Dependence on Technology Transforming Us Into Virtual Beings?

Love and human bonding is known to be eternal and hence it is unconditional. But then, why, even after transforming into a more educated and a very well ‘connected’ society that the digital & technological innovations has powered, the human race is increasingly failing on core human values and emotions. Stories of human exploiting humans and constant fall of human values is an undeniable reality of today’s world. A “seamlessly connected’ society is literally falling apart.

It has been observed that humans today are increasingly becoming so dependent on the digital or the virtual space that even the matters pertaining to human relationships & love are being nurtured in the digital or the virtual space. Long distance relationships have become a feasible option as opposed to a reluctant choice. And why not? Technology makes it possible to stay connected while living myriads of miles away.

Technology enables us to travel far away distances in a considerably lower time. We are able to arrive at the most important occasions just in time. The bonding that used to get developed because of proximity & being together, was in fact the essence of any relationship in the past. In this era people are closer to technology & prefer virtual world to real world hence, quality time together is now replaced by “me time” or “digital time” without which life seems very redundant and boring.

It is undeniable that technology has empowered us to enjoy a wide arena of liberties & facilities such as paying bills from the convenience of home, shunning the fear of running out of cash with the disposal of online payment modes at the click of a button. Enabling us to monitor our loved ones and cater to their needs even without being close to them. Feasibility of working from home when time throws us up to challenging situations. Nonetheless, the objective with which we are excessively putting technology to use is quite mean.

What is this concept of “me time” or “digital time” that’s gaining significance among not only the younger lot, but also amongst almost every individual who can work his/her way around the digital world? It’s nothing but secluding ourselves from the real world and dwelling in a zone where we can stop being answerable for the actions we do or choices we make by stay being anonymous, or live as an alias, or camouflage the real personality with a virtual one, while dwelling in the virtual world.

Younger generations prefer to play games on the screen and keep a tab of latest development on the social media rather than paying attention to the emotional needs of their loved ones.

This way they are distancing themselves from an unconditional powerhouse that the loved ones offer to be. Subsequently, being left with depleting emotional intelligence and developing an inability to experience real emotions and gradually losing the sensitivity to interpret them.

We feel the urge or may we say “addiction” to keep in constant touch with almost all the frothy avenues like online shopping malls, updating our minute by minute social platform status, or meet anonymous virtual people on social networking sites. This is the flip side of becoming too tech savvy or dependent on advanced digital technology available to mankind today.

As a result, we miss to keep track of our basic commitments related to the real world and relationships so much so that in many cases a psychologist’s help is required to resolve the mess that had been created due to the friction between real & virtual world.

Technology has offered us an irresistible platter of facilities, services and networking but it has all the ingredients which confines a person to just himself / herself in the name of digital transformation. We all are ending up in a ‘self-isolation’ mode. For many, dealing with the real world has become undesirable and to them being real seems frivolous.

As they say, there are two sides to a coin, it is for us to choose wisely while keeping in mind the repercussions of our pick.