While technology has brought us into the next level of living, it also changes everything.
I remember my day trip to Kyabram (a rural place) around two months ago. With no phone service whatsoever, I am forced to live without handphone: the urge to check my facebook, emails, or even WhatsApp for every 10 minutes. And boy, how I love that day!
Entering a life in media and communication means entering a life in technology. E-papers have replaced newspapers. Blogs have replaced magazines. E-mails, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and all other social networks. Chatting with a friend over coffee has changed into chatting virtually through Skype. Technology has grown exponentially, but I guess my little heart is not ready for the rapid change.
While having a passion in the media, I have been confronted with the urge to be able to master the application of the new media. I’m not a ‘twitter’ person, yet in the end I am giving up my oath not to make twitter for the sake of my studies in uni.
What I hate most about the new media is the constant pressure to be plugged in with the news 24/7. I greatly dislike the need to compete with others in order to be the first one who knows what’s going on with the world. In a sense, I may not be able to be a true media student.
But what can I say, even blogging is a form of new media as well; something that I would not be able to achieve without the advance of technology. But the wheels are turning fast, too fast – at least for me.
I can’t help but notice some friends who are never separated from their mobile phones. Blackberry users, most of all, constantly have their faithful companions beside them, even at the dining tables.
And I can’t help but looking at Facebook updates and checking my emails for at least once in every 3-4 hours. I hate it because instead of building my life and forging my character, I am updating my Facebook profile and giving life to my gravatar.
Although I approach blogging differently (as this is my reflection – my writing on life), I have been forced to face the fact that I’m living at least 4 hours a day in this virtual world. The hours that I can spend on building my relationship with others, read a book, or learn something new. Nope, I’m just too busy reading other people’s status updates, or finding who’s broken up their relationship and who’s getting together. I’m too overwhelmed with the urge to know their lives – instead of living mine.
And in the end, through all these new media, I have finally come to conclude the inevitable, that people may concern more about their profile picture instead of their character, about updating their status instead of mending broken relationships, about how others see them instead of who they really are.
Well, life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits.
Life was much simpler back then, the time when you don’t have to worry about checking your e-mails 24/7 – just in case important ones come.
Life was much easier, when you are focused more on developing your skills in the real world instead of the virtual world.
Life was much simpler, for only a few options were presented. It’s either black or white.
In the end, life was easier, but that does not mean that it was worse, nor better – that answer entirely depends on you.
It was just – simpler.
