Simple Seven Tips : Go Digital or No Digital ?

The Tamil Vijay TV famous Neeya Naana show on 08th Jan’2017 was about gadget gurus who love to buy and get addicted on latest gadgets , using all possible app throughout the days Vs those who do not support this and wish to be gadget free addiction free happy humans.

The gadget addicts were so proud that they are tech genius and they love getting upgraded, more than getting upgraded, I saw them being proud on “Feeling” upgraded. They feel that they are experiencing ‘sky is the limit’. On the other hand, the opponents were annoyed by this pride of gadget lovers. They complained, ‘you become lazy, your privacy is gone, your get insecure, you slowly get controlled by the digital world”. I listened as Gopi na streamlined the questions and moderated the show. Here are my views :

I have a friend who works with “google” , she is a software professional, a very senior , successful person who was at U.S for five years and now she is back to India. Don’t you feel ‘wow’ about her, ‘high profile’ thought ? Yes , she is trendy, she has vast knowledge on current happenings across politics, technology, retail etc. The shocking surprise here is that she does not have a Facebook account, nor twitter, nor any social media profile where you can get her personal contacts. She does have a Linkedin account where she is professionally very active. She is in touch with all her friends on mobile and emails. She is leading a very happy, modern life in a metropolitan city. Now,let us not be judgemental or further discuss about her style of living. Rather this gives us a clear direction of how to Go Digital without being affected.

Define your comfort zone : The digital technology as per definition is invented for providing more ease to our life. Though this might actually not be the exact scenario in reality, we can stop blaming that digital world is making us lazy and start using our brains. We can start choosing our comfort zone. Just like every peer in our office had an Apple product, we also fancied about buying one and now to hear even one song, we gotta download in macbook, convert to iTunes, sync macbook and iPhone and then hear it. Uff ! People buy vacuum cleaner and instead of cleaning their house in twenty minutes, they spend 30 minutes to set up the vacuum cleaner which cleans so quickly. But, I do have really seen friends using the best of iPhones. I do have neighbours who are brilliant users of vacuum cleaners. Maybe its not our cup of tea. So, decide your comfort zone, the areas where digital technologies is going to help you and go for it.
Upgrade : Though you crib about it or say ‘no digital’ these are generation upgrades. I have a friend who wants to take a movie about love between two people who are only interacting through postal letters. When he told me the concept, I laughed at him and called him a fool. In the technology world, where you have Facebook even at villages, why should someone use postal cards ? He used the sentimental languages explaining how we should showcase the usage of postal cards etc. Do you feel he is outdated ? If you are one of those who says ‘no digital’ you will also be soon outdated. My mother in law doesn’t like microwave cooking so she cooks separately, her mother in law doesn’t like cooker food so 80 years old she cooks with the three stones , copper vessel separately. Are you among such categories ? If not, time to upgrade yourself.
Go “No digital” once a while : If you are the normal human of this generation, who is mandated to be addicted to your gadgets, then take a day off from all gadgets once a while, a regular frequency (once a month). Switch off your phones, no TV or laptop, better go for trekking or other outing which is close to nature. Prove yourself that you can survive without these gadgets. It also proves that you are not controlled by the digital world.
Don’t listen to other’s comments : I wrote a blog on Whatsapp uninstall challenge. One of my reader immediately uninstalled for seven days. After few months, another friend of hers introduced a new smart watch along with the health tracking devices. She purchased that and used for a while. Later she saw few videos that those apps are not real, she sold them in quikr. I felt that she is such a confused soul, just like many of us. Digital technology controlling us is secondary. Primarily, listening to everyone’s comments and reacting to it, we make the third person in our life controlling us. So, never get over influenced especially with Go or No digital decisions.
Have limits :

Myself and my husband loves to watch TV. We are used to having a music channel playing throughout the day and even nights. Once we realised that it was giving a wrong example to our son, we started slowing down. Now, every Tuesday is gadget day for our son and Sundays are gadget days for me and my husband. We see TV only on those days, he watches cartoons and play games on Tuesdays only. The first four months was a struggle to make him get used to this, but more struggle for us to set limitations. Now it is two years since we started following the gadget day concept. These limits make it easier and enjoyable. So, plan and limit your gadget usage. Do read my blog on Children’s gadget addiction
Educate the rural : Most of the above are applicable for many city folks. Though every person in our town has a Facebook account and a whatsapp account, the usage and interpretation differs. One of my uncles said he is travelling to Kerala next week. When we asked why, he showed us a forwarded whatsapp message which said there is a plant in kerala which cures cancer and there was a photo and a name of the village. My cousin who lives there tries every single beauty tip she sees in Facebook and once got allergic to something she tried. There is a successful business man in our village. Can you guess what is his career ? He pays online bills for everyone, he transfers money through net banking, asking for their customer id and password. He charges Rs 10 to Rs 50 according to the service. He is one of the richest business man there. These are the current challenges in terms of these high end technologies misleading rural population. Try and educate as many people you can. Especially the online darshans happening and ‘share this God’s pic in 5 seconds, something good will happen today’ kind of believes.
Be smart : While I felt proud about ‘Go digital’ many times, what gives an insecure feeling is that when people say we are being controlled by a digital world. W.r.t privacy, it is you who has to decide what is your privacy level. I have friends who still have not uploaded any of their picture in any social media, they are in their later thirties. I do have friends who don’t mind sharing a bikini pic of theirs in social media. End of the day, every person’s comfort zone differs, so dont post a pic or info if you are not comfortable anyone knowing or talking about it. Last but most important thing, actually a question, which I have not got an answer for : All our finance is now going digital, we do not get cash in hand as salary, we do not have transactions with real money, the banking app shows an amount and we believe we have that. What if one day the entire server collapses ? What if the complete data that is online throughout gets cleared and back to 00 ? Every device of ours have our card details. Is every transaction a secured transaction ? This is a fantasy thought I often guess and build upon. So, to avoid getting into unexpected trouble, be the smarter one who is not controlled by the digital world.