Social Media or Social Gambling

I wake up with the sound of my alarm clock in my mobile phone which goes off at 6 am. The next thing which I do is turn it off and put the net on and start my day with browsing by what has been happening around the world. Well this thing which I am mentioning about “happening around the world” is not the daily news but rather the social media like Instagram, Face book and so on where the list never ends. I bet I have been using quiet many apps in my mobile that my mobile seems to get hung up these days. Poor thing, it must be wandering what we are doing with our lives. And only after flipping over the small screen for almost about 15-20 minutes than we are satisfied and we get out from our beds. We then get the content to start our daily lives and chores. And this is not only with me but it’s happening with each and everyone out there. I know almost everyone who will be reading my blogs will be used to with such habits. Our lives have been so controlled by these modern gadgets, the modern technology that we don’t realize how we are moving away from those who are near to us. Rather we are so interested to start up a conversation with someone whom we have just met a couple of days back in the social media. Why? Should I consider the psychological factor or blame the social media? The best diplomatic answer being everything has its own advantage as well as disadvantage. Yes, I agree with the fact but an individual should start acting on it as early as possible so that these things don’t dominate your whole life. Have you ever tried a day with just putting the internet off or just having removed all of these apps? How is the feeling? I tried it a couple of times and then shifted to trying it about a week and I think it definitely has a positive impact on your life. First and foremost thing I was able to focus and concentrate on what was in front of me, I was then able to get a clear cut path of setting up my planners. It has been a while since I haven’t gone back to that habit which I need to start up again. The second thing being the expense of the internet. The internet packages in Bhutan are way expensive unlike in other countries which I have been to where internet cost is way cheap with excellent speed and wifi connections available at every point. So for an ordinary person staying in a place like Thimphu where the cost of living only is so high and where he/she has to rethink twice before making any extra purchases, seeing the internet bill at such a time will become a stroke moment. I bet everyone goes through such a moment but yes they never talk about it. I say here that I also experienced such a moment and it was pretty hard when it came to clearing the dues and managing fund but yes I was able to overcome it with some few planning. I realized that we have laptops, we have desktops where we can work on internet and we have much economic connections like the broadband connections which have a relatively good speed. Yet we humans are lazy bumps and always have this tendency of expecting comfortableness in whatever we do that we expect such from gadgets and internets too. I personally feel that internet connection in the mobile could be used at an emergency or when need arises but let’s not make it a habit and become addicted to using it from the mobiles. We can always set aside a time to check but let us not make it a social gambling forum. Because I know in today’s time smart phones are equally important along with having an internet connection. I remember some years back when I didn’t have a smart phone and wasn’t keen to have it also but then my circle of friends having owned smart phones individually, I had to buy it because it felt like you were cut off from the rest of the living world. You can imagine yourself like a zombie then. But yes if you know how to balance it well all things become a blessing in disguise. What I am trying to say here is that let us try to have a balance between all of these stuffs and let it not control our lives. About 10 years back when I was pursuing my Undergraduate studies, we had no access to phones and it was just later after a while that phones were introduced. There was no internet access in the phones during then with our phones looking very classic like some World War I era time. It is very funny to mention here that my son teaches my parents how to use the chatting applications like WeChat etc in the phones today. He knows how to click pictures and send etc. Comparing to when we were of his age, we knew nothing about phones. All I can remember is only some Richie rich who had access to phones and that too the model of the phones would be big round number dialing in a circular motion. I miss the fact that even though we didn’t have mobile phones or phones in general yet we were always close to those who were near to us. We could be in one room and be emotionally attached with each other. And now the entire thinking has changed. We become or tend to become closer with those people whom we have never met in our lives and we actually feel confined with them. Rare do we notice the fact that we are drifting far away from those who are actually near to us.  But I am glad that many of us are now beginning to quit the social media and focus on much more important aspects of lives. I personally feel that if there is a balance being maintained then all will be fine but alas we cannot go about complaining about our youths getting addicted to social media when in reality many of us of our current generations are also being absorbed in its addiction. I watched many videos in YouTube to get inspiration on quitting the social media gambling. It is for sure not an easy task to quit the social media gambling and it takes sometimes. But for sure I will say “where there is a will, there is a way”. Nothing is impossible. All you need is the willpower to control before it takes control of your lives. I am glad and happy to share here that I am also following the path towards quitting the social media and have been able to achieve it progressively till date and I still need to go on. I tried it for a couple of days initially without internet connection in my phone and I kept my phone ‘On’ only for the purpose of receiving calls. It helped me a lot to balance my day to day activities, also saved my internet cost as in Bhutan it is very expensive compared to other places and I was glad that it actually refreshed my mind thus able to concentrate on my duties and responsibilities and focus on the things which were in and around me.