Flush of novelty over, people are getting back to ‘old’ normal
| Date :30-Aug-2020 |
By Vijay Phanshikar :
NOw that the first flush of novelty is over about staying indoors due to COVID-19 pandemic, people are getting back to their ‘old’ normals -- fights, arguments, youngsters throwing tantrums, elders behaving in crazy manner as they are not allowed to stray out of homes, women back to gossip at least on phones -- if not in physical conclaves. To make matters more taxing are the so-called on-line schools and colleges, that began a couple of months ago. Initial romance with pandemic having been over, people appear to be getting back to their old days.
The goody-goody atmosphere in the families is about to become a temporary matter of the past. Of course, this was expected. Families were expected to get back to their old ways all right. For, how many new dishes to learn and make for the people at home? How many hours can a family play the game of carom or chess? And how many books can one read in succession -- especially when reading was neither a habit nor a hobby? So, families are back to their old normals -- and so a new social challenge has emerged. This is the challenge of handling self in constrained conditions. And frankly, our society does not have an answer to this issue -- of how to spend time within the confines of home when there has never been a culture of creative pastime.
True, television does offer a lot of solace, so to say. But its limitations, too, are coming to fore -- limitations of boredom out of over-exposure. Of course, another gadget is still holding the sway -- the mobile phone of the android type. That is still a mesmerising tool in anybody’s hand. So, young and old take to it like fish takes to water. I have known people well beyond sixty years of age also becoming victims of the mobile addiction, showing remarkable resilience to learn new things and Apps and connecting with people far and wide. But more worrisome, as usual, is the addiction of young people to mobile phones.
And there appears to be no escape from it now -- as even schools and colleges are conducting on-line educational programmes involving youngsters of all levels. Some sensible voices did question this wisdom, but they have fallen by the wayside by now. Thanks to the overwhelming resort of the larger society to on-line education and webinars and video-conferences, it will not be possible for the larger society to shrug off the mobile-demon. Long back, colleges and schools were using the mobile phone as an official tool of connect. For too long a time, families also had formed WhatsApp ‘groups’ for inter-connections. All that had lent the mobile phones an official recognition. In such a condition, it is only futile to talk of the ill-effects of the mobile addiction. Yet, one’s conscience does not permit sitting quiet without a word of caution. Hence this: Friends, using mobile phones for on-line activities is all right, but its overuse is going to assume demonic proportions in the long run. Let us not miss this negative potential of the tool.