Sep 12, 2011

Writhing In The Bullshit Called Future - Essay

Life was simple when I was a kid. There were limited number of friends, those I knew in school or in my street. Maybe some kids I knew because they were children of friends of my parents. It was simple. There were landline phones, if you didn't want to talk to anyone you could just ask your folks or siblings to tell them that you were not home. We wrote letters. On paper, with pen. I had a collection of ink pens. Some pen friends too. Ink pens were an adventure. When I was in 5th grade, getting an ink pen was a feeling that I had finally arrived.

Then, in about year 2000, I found the internet. I made my first blog in 2003. What was I doing online in these 3 years, well, there was yahoo chat, some MIRC, and emails, and god knows what else, yahoo groups? Memory is hazy. It was then I got to know that, yeah, there are other people in the world who think like me, listen to same music, read same authors, have similar irritants, and are interested in talking to me about all the stuff that I couldn't talk to anyone about. 

Those were the good times. Because the internet in its infancy was simpler, uglier, and slightly more manageable. This was partially because the only way to access the net was from a cybercafe at 60 rupees an hour. The speeds were slow and you had to wait for everything. It was a lesson in patience too. Good times, as I said.

Now, I have internet in my phone and its virtually free.

I used to dream of this shit. To have the fucking internet in my pocket. But now that it's here, the dream comes with its own set of nightmares. Suddenly, we are overloaded with information. Being connected means that there is a constant onslaught of information that may or may not add to the quality of our life. We have to pick and choose the information that we like from the quagmire of useless bullshit that is thrown our way. 

The alternative is to disconnect from the net completely, but then you will definitely miss out on the stuff you want to see. It's a strange situation. We're facing an internet overload or information overload. There is no escape because we're all deep in it till our noses. And most of us don't even realize it because it is US, who are adding to the bullshit. We're writhing in it.

And that's all there is. 



2 comments:

  1. Nice man...loved it! Everyone can relate to it...atleast the twitters and bloggers. Mazza aagaya :)

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  2. heh. i found internet in 2002 or 2003. They taught us about it in school and showd few wepages to us. But i had almost no access to it till 2005 :D

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