Sufficient, but not necessary

 

It doesn’t require great events to alter our course of life; a non-responsive smartphone serves the purpose. Don’t believe me? 

 

A month ago, I was enjoying my typical millennial day—came home from office, earned some time to entertain myself in the form of browsing various needless apps—and suddenly, my Lenovo K8 Note crashed, not physically but technically.

 

I cannot describe the emotional trauma I have gone through. Heart beat rose exponentially and my brain demanded more oxygen. My siblings entertaining themselves in their mobiles waned my heart. In the days where mobiles became a natural extension of our arms, I felt as if I have lost one. My mind did not experience a void from a long time and I asked God, “Why me? Why now?” For the first time in many days, I did not know what to do with the leisure.

 

The fear of Corona prevented me from buying a new mobile online. Instead, I started using my younger brother’s old Samsung mobile. As it only supports 8GB external memory, I was forced to install the apps which are absolutely necessary, like, Whatsapp for messaging, Keep for notes, Office for docs, etc. Fast forward a month and these were the observations I made:

 

1.    When I didn’t know what to do with my leisure, I just grabbed my mobile, got frustrated that I have to unlock with pin (no fingerprint scanner), swiped left, then right, watched for notifications, locked it again. Repeated these steps hundreds of times in a day.

 

2.    Spent more time on Youtube and WhatsApp. Most of the times, just scrolled Youtube and didn’t find any video worthy to watch. 

 

3.    Couldn’t install Facebook or Instagram for memory constraints, and their absence didn’t make any impact.

 

4.    Google repeatedly asked me to install the Quora app while reading it and offered restricted access in the browser, not allowing me to read the articles completely.

 

5.    Pinterest didn’t allow me to search for images without logging in or installing app.

 

6.    Couldn’t install any games and their absence too didn’t make any difference.

 

7.    No Inshorts or Dailyhunt. Had to open Chrome to read news. As the days passed, I stopped reading those too and life carried on smoothly.

 

8.    By the way, The Hindu didn’t allow me to read more than 10 articles a month. Asked me to subscribe for quality journalism.

 

9.    Couldn’t watch ’How I Met Your Mother’ as I couldn’t install Telegram.

 

10.  It seemed fine without GPay, PhonePe or Paytm, cash still got approved.

 

11.  No Amazon, Flipkart or Paytm. So, spent less time searching for the things I don’t need.

 

12.  TV seemed fine without Netflix, Hotstar, AmazonPrimeVideo, SonyLIV, MX Player, etc.

 

13.  As it doesn’t have a monster battery, yeah, I sometimes thought about life while the mobile was on charging. 

 

So, what are the thoughts?

 

I found it annoying when Quora and Pinterest asked me to login to continue further. So when does serving for the needs was superseded by the urge to acquire followers? It’s reasonable to ask to login for better experience or offering their customized services. But, asking to login even without beginning?

 

With ever increasing battery capacity, internal memory, and the RAM, I was being lured to find varied means to hook to my mobile. I unknowingly fell in the imaginary cycle of social networking, video streaming, news, and myriad other apps. I found means to spend my time for the purposes I don’t need. The tech giants are trying their best to keep us online, so that they could earn some silver while we get interacted and entertained. It’s true that our time online is their revenue source. That proved correct during the current pandemic. While many businesses were forced to close, the online services thrived and there’s no need to point out who the winners are and why they have won. 

 

On the other part, the amount of information I processed in a day didn’t allow me to do dedicate my energies on other productive activities or building up quality relationships. With easy access to information and entertainment, I felt so busy that I didn’t recognize the difference between boredom and getting hooked to the mobile. Does boredom prompt me to constantly check my mobile or has it become a habit, a habit that deprived me of my productive boredom? Have to give it a thought someday. Having mobile is just a sufficient condition, not a necessary one.

But, as all the good things learned during Corona lock-down were forgotten after series of Unlocks, I too searched for a new mobile online, bought a good one, the one with a huge memory and RAM and installed all the apps I don’t need. Thus the old days were restored and I got my arm back. 

 

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