Ruchira celebrates the influx of social media sites that have made like enchantingly interesting. Read more in the weekly column, exclusively for Different Truths.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
We are familiar with these lines penned by renowned British poet William Blake. Had he lived, Blake would be delighted to witness how his longing and wistfulness has been translated into reality thanks to modern technology! Information technology to be precise.
Yes, technology has brought the entire gamut of the Earth, Nature, and Knowledge, in a nutshell, and placed it into the limited space of a human hand. Moreover, this savoir-faire has changed our mindset as well as a lifestyle like never before. I am talking about prominent components of social media – Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, et al. With the help of these, you may embark on voyages without stirring out of your home! Fantastic isn’t it?
To begin with, the basics, want to enroll for the course of your choice? Hop onto Google and you get a vast list of options in a jiffy. Looking for a suitable placement? With the click of a mouse, names of companies and businesses will begin to scroll before your eyes! Next, you won’t even need to visit the stationery store or the post office. Trust Yahoo or Gmail to do the jobs for you. As far as socialising and interpersonal relationships go, I personally feel the youth of today are much more fortunate. Nowadays, a pretty young thing can communicate with her beau via texting/SMS/ Whatsapp. The chances of getting caught by disapproving guardians are almost zilch. Ditto for the possibility of an emotional missive falling into wrong hands or being purloined by a jealous sibling. You can give the neighborhood postman a miss too. Messages from the other end will flash onto your screen before you can say, Jack Robinson!
On a personal note, I owe a debt of gratitude to Facebook for one. Since I have largely been on the move, I lost contact with very many individuals who have impacted my life. Ever since I joined Facebook, lo and behold the bulk of them have come back into my life. Several childhood friends, classmates at school and college, neighbourhood companions figure among them.
I am an ardent traveler but well nigh impossible to cover your exotic dream destinations owing to diverse
factors. At this point, I thank my footloose cousin who affords me vicarious pleasure, by uploading breathtaking photographs – of dream destinations like Petra (Jordan) Istanbul (Turkey) Cambodia, Bahrain and lots more!
One of my friends has a young son who is a marine biologist. His projects take him to far-flung islands destinations viz., Cape Verde, Madagascar, Jamaica and what have you. And the most dutifully and religiously delights me with hordes of photographs on his timeline!
On the home front, thanks to Skype, while not forgetting Whatsapp and Facebook, I can most conveniently participate in baby showers of nieces, birthdays of nephews, engagement ceremonies, annaprashan (rice eating ceremony) of kids and so forth. This saves me the bother of booking air and train tickets.
Messenger is ideal for girly talks, health tips exchange of recipes with a smattering of gossip. Trust me, the humongous quantities of recipes available on Internet have found them in my files. In the process I have turned out to be a better chef than before, besides dabbling in Continental, Chinese and Fusion culinary arts.
I conclude with profuse thanks to Zomato which made hospitality simple for me by delivering the “tastiest” of Biriyanis, Kebabs and other delicacies on my doorstep, bang on time, before the guests troop in. Some days if I am unwell, or lethargic. I am complacent that there will be food on my table thanks to this wonderful app.
The long and the short of it all, despite its innumerable minus points and side effect social media, is here to stay. It has minimized arduous physical labour and enabled us to wallow in comfort and basic luxury. The global village of a few decades earlier has now been comfortably accommodated on a screen, tablet or desktop.
©Ruchira Adhikari Ghosh
Photos from the Internet
#SocialMedia #HelpOfSocialMedia #WorldVillage #Apps #SliceOfLife #DifferentTruths
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