My Tryst With Technology

Why I kicked Facebook? (August 2009)

I have been on Facebook for sometime now. Others keep up with Twitter and Orkut too.

Not too long back I followed the numbers on my friend’s list as closely as stock quotes, while keeping track of others rising figures. It was competitive.

Some mentioned to me, ``you have so many (friends) only, I have many more.’’ There were egos involved.

I believe actor Ashton Kutcher has more than a million-list and keeps his fans humored by anecdotes and private pictures of his wife Demi Moore, sometimes in her underwear. My wife would kill me.

For me touching the 100 friends mark was a big day, even as I remain logged now with 250 odd people comprising extended family, close friends, others regurgitated from the past, many cousins, faint acquaintances, some I might have bumped into anywhere, including bank relationship managers and more I just don’t know.

Till some time back, I kept digging for more people I could know.

Today, I am bored of FB as the novelty has worn out. I would prefer to wash my car any day without uploading pictures of me washing the car.

In the past, I grew out of pornography as it is no use watching others having all the fun.

And, I have grown out of FB as I felt it limited my mind, my life – thinking process, work and creativity – which instead focused on buttressing my FB profile.

Perhaps it works fine for big people such as Ashton and other celebrities who need to be in the glare due to marketing and sales needs.

I felt like a vacuous Page 3 party person flashing a funny pose or wearing a short skirt on skinny legs to somehow get pass the editor’s muster and onto the papers the next day.

Except on FB you are your own boss --- and people get to see what you want them to see.

So, I took pictures of places visited subconsciously keeping FB in mind, faking a big smile once on a trip to desert state Rajasthan in height of summer, even as my brain boiled inside.

I perhaps took a holiday or two extra to keep up with the photo updates

In FB everybody has to be having good time like the P3 people, otherwise, he/she would not be on FB. You don’t see too many hospital pictures except for newborns, all very cute, as long as the parents get to do the potty washing.

My ideas also brimmed to keep the new status messages exciting to elicit instant reactions. I was disappointed if they did not.

I even grew a mustache and put up the pictures. I socialized more and met new people to get them onto my FB list.

I took and re-took innumerable quizzes until my smile or sex appeal matched as closest to Tom Cruise and IQ Einstein.

There was even a brief period when I avoided some friends as they could no longer add to the friend list numbers, while I already knew whatever I might have wanted to know about them, courtesy FB.

I requested those who did not FB to begin an account right away. Ideally, I should have been paid by the FB promoters for the free branding.

Today I FB barely five minutes a day, if I do log in. The only comment I have made in the last few weeks is clicking the Like button. Even this is more infrequent.

The whole world seems to be doing the same things --- holding a drink, in the Jacuzzi or at the beach, catching the standard FB moment.

I am sick of looking at pictures of holidays, marriages, the always adorable kids, birthdays, official functions, foreign visits, mum and dad when they were young and grandparents in their youth.

All of this was, of course very exciting at one time as it unfolded the world of so many I had interacted in the past.

To begin with, it was good to know about them until it became all too predictable. It was like a reality show on TV that had lost its punch.

At the same time the curiosity about catching up with an old school mate in real was lost.

Many of them, ex-colleagues, classmates, might have formed part of my daily routine at some point. But, life moves on and a new bunch of relationships develop that takes precedence.

As a matter of fact, I have knocked off a couple of good friends from my list as there was not much to speak about after debating an issue the whole day on FB.

Today, my FB account is more like an online diary which gets automatically updated, should the need arise to get in touch with somebody. This is useful.

But, I don’t look out for names I may or may not know or send out requests to add to my friend list or take off on an exotic holiday to put up the pictures.

I prefer to wash my car any day.

Without a Cell Phone (February 2004)

It was the day my cell phone conked off that I achieved nirvana. It is time I have spent most blissfully --- no SMS beeps, no telemarketing or business calls, no unnecessary friends, family and wife.

I play golf the way I should watching the greens, no walking out of a movie, no stepping into potholes and people, no driving with one hand, the most leisurely bath and breakfast, even making love.

The body of my erstwhile cell phone still rests on my table, a mangle of plastic, fibre and rest of components. It took a fall from the second floor on the cement outside letting out one final beep before going dead.

I watched it bounce and break on the lighted ground and instantly felt that a body part had been dissociated, waiting for it to quiver like the severed tail of a lizard.

I wanted to run down the stairs and check whether it still functioned. But,
I stayed where I was, trying to figure out the position of the disintegrated pieces. In fact, I felt happy in a strange way and recalled images of Cassius Clay in his movie when he sinks his Olympic medal into the river. It was good riddance.

But this was a moment. I was alarmed as it was late night when my phone met its demise. I mentally re-arranged my next day’s assignments for the most important task of fixing or buying a new cell phone. I felt desperate.

I was expecting calls --- there was a lunch engagement with my brother, a friend I had to meet, an appointment with an American Express agent.

Back on my table that night my partially re-joined cell phone looked like a dead relative, who was walking and talking a moment ago. It had always been around, inside my shirt pocket while driving or on my computer table that I could spot it with the corner of my eye.

One was subconsciously always conscious of it coming alive any moment, blaring the latest ring tone downloaded from the Internet. It was not to be any longer. Did it make me feel happy?

It did, very soon. I have already started to treasure the first few hours of existence without the cell phone, with nostalgia. I follow Deepak Chopra’s meditation techniques, being one with the universe with the mind and spirit conjoined with divinity.

The silence that enveloped my immediate existence post-cell phone was similar. Those few hours I did not need Chopra as my mind was on automatic rest mode.

The next morning after the fall turned out to be unusual. I went for my usual walk and actually listened to a spiritual sermon by an elderly co-walker without golfing mates doing the rounds calling in to say, ``birdie, eagle.’’

Breakfast was even better. No reminders from bosses, editors of magazines and newspapers of re-scheduled deadlines. One editor got to me four hours late on mail; she began by writing that she was trying my number the entire morning. She wanted a story early.

It ruined my day, but could have destroyed my morning as well.

My wife has a theory that people don’t call as often on the landline as on the cell phone. This is because a landline can involve a chain of people and one may not be there, whereas a cell call is direct. So, a person will not call on a landline unless it is really urgent. On the cell phone calls come in on a missed putt.

She is right.

I have got back to the people who matter and told them to e-mail or call on the landline. The telemarketers do that in any case, but now they get me only when I am there.

I have also realized that most calls I made were not necessary, specially the ones when I am driving or waiting for a movie to begin. There has been one urgent situation for which I went to a phone booth.

I had forgotten about phone booths. Having just watched uninterrupted the movie Phone Booth, it was rather eerie stepping into one, but nobody pointed a gun at me. And to better the experience, no cell call interrupted my booth call. For the rest, I wait till I get to my office phone.

I am out of cell phone for over a week now. Do I miss it? No. Has life changed for the worse or has it affected my business? Not in the least deal. People have come to expect the new time frame.

I check my mail in the morning and evening for replies and propositions. Everyone fits into my routine, rather than the other way round.

There is no spurt of the moment rescheduling as the time gap is accounted for. Friends know when I am available on landline and call accordingly. My wife had a problem initially, but we watched Phone Booth together and she didn’t have to fill out the parts I missed.

She is coming round to the non-existence of my cell phone, probably even loving it, as lovemaking too has a new ring without the ring tones.

I am not going in for another cell phone in a hurry.

Technology and Terror (September 2004)

Can cell phones be a threat to personal security of important people?

We know about constant new research that cellular waves affect the brain, but this is about security and the fear of terror among us.

The debate in India emanated from a group of prominent journalists who, like most others, do the rounds of the various press interactions of people in the news.

It so happened that during the recent visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the immaculate security detail did not involve surrendering of cell phones at the security counter outside, to gain entry for an address by the visiting dignitary.

This raised the eyebrows of seasoned hacks. As things stand, cell phones are banned from the presence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi.

They are not allowed inside Parliament, the Race Course Road where the PM resides and the Home Ministry where Advani attends office.

The journalists, constantly harassed by the long queues at the cell phone deposit counters, were quick to point out that no such limitations exists while meeting George W Bush at the White House or Tony Blair at 10, Downing Street.

Even if one did not believe in the efficacy of US and UK security Sharon’s visit was the final stamp of disapproval as nobody does safety better than the Israelis.

Besides, it was argued, if cell phones are such a threat, there is no such bar on their use when defense minister George Fernandes or foreign minister
Jaswant Singh are addressing the media or attending a function. One would imagine they are equally important with a similar threat perception.

Many delved into the reasoning behind such a happening. There is no statute that exists, except for a report by the Intelligence Bureau a few years ago that there was a possibility of a bomb being set off by a call from a cell phone. It could have been a landline as well. Security personnel too do not seem to offer a plausible argument.

Some point out that in the past terrorists used cell phones to co-ordinate attacks. The Indian government has been intermittently banning the use of cell phones and STD facilities in terror infested Jammu & Kashmir.

During the 2001, December 11 attack on Indian Parliament terrorists were in touch with the masterminds over the cellular phones they possessed, with records showing calls to Pakistan and Dubai.

But, this argument does not hold good for personal security as calls can easily be made by stepping outside the hall with the VIP already present, detailing his/her movements. The cat was out of the bag when a senior official commented that nobody wanted to take the responsibility of lifting the ban, if an incident did happen after such a move.

Not that the issue we are talking about is a national disaster, but it sure is inconvenient and a reflection of how things stand in the government. But, more importantly it is an indication of the fear of terror that has ingrained in our psyche as well as the system.

In an age when technology advances at unimaginable speed, there is also a concomitant perception that all gadgetry can be dangerous.

It is witnessed at airports. A person with a cell phone is seen as a potential time bomb and a laptop is a fitted missile, as vouched by a friend who complained of the innumerable instances she had to switch on and off her computer as well as detach the alkaline battery.

Similar is the case with cell phones, though not as bad.

It goes without saying that terror and technology are at loggerheads --- one making existence seamless, the other inserting the roadblocks, literally.
The difference, ironically, arises out of a similarity between the two.
Technology is about the unknown, just as the convoluted mind of a terrorist is.

The terrorist today is seen as a high-tech being who ruthlessly twists know-how to suit his ends. The image of technology has taken a beating due to terror.

It is the same reason that Sikhs are mistaken to belong to the ilk of Osama
Bin Laden and assaulted in the USA. The problem is not being a Sikh, but that the beard has come to signify terror.

Hindus in India shave off their beards before traveling abroad for fear of being persecuted. They change their names if there is even a remote Muslim phonetic. It is the same reason that students from Asian countries heading for the west are perceived with suspicion. A low flying aero plane is a threat; a power failure is assumed to be a precursor to a terror strike.

When Indian officials grapple with explanations of why cellular phones are not allowed, are they to blame? In an age when security is constantly breached by terror attacks, can they withdraw a rule that has been in place, without understanding fully how a terrorist behaves or plans his/her attack?
Nobody imagined 9/11 until it happened.

Who knows what (mis)-use a cell phone or airwaves can be put to?