Writing or posting has become a very casual and everyone just wants to contribute banality rather than wait for some deeper-thought, analysis, or important events. News channels and websites want to attract traffic so would like to scream Breaking news and also add provoking opinions to news items which will ensure their viewers are hooked on.
There used to be a time when you could pick and choose the news articles you wanted to read; this was touted as the difference between the traditional news sources (TV & Newspaper) and the build your own newspaper (using Internet sources). But off late the Internet is flooded with articles and blogs containing overt or covert sponsored information. Searching for news articles on topics of interest has become a tiring chore in itself let alone reading and learning from them. Today when you hit the search button you are sucked into the world of ad-word manipulation and sponsored pages. You have to carefully sift through the results to ensure you pick out the articles you have been looking for.
Social Networking sites started off as a way to stay connected with Friends and Family. But using Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ is no longer a pass-time. Everyone wants to post updates about everything they do however trite they may be: "I landed in Amsterdam", "It is raining", and "I am bored!".
- Facebook statistics reports: More than 800 million active users. Average user has 130 friends. On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day.
- Twitter statistics reports: Average number of tweets per day is 140 million. Tweets generally spike during a significant event: 456 Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
The overload caused by this relentless noise has ensured wiping out of introspection and personal space. I am sure we all have realized that we no longer have the time and energy left to look at life in a larger context. With things coming at us in volumes and at a fast pace, it is natural that we have lost touch with ourselves.
Blaise Pascal wrote: "The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is distraction, yet that is the greatest of our wretchedness. Without it we should be bored, and boredom would force us to search for a firmer way out, but distraction entertains us and leads us imperceptibly to death."
It is critical that we realize and break the paradox created when the gadgets which made our lives convenient and easier have also seemed to have blinded us to the larger context.
