The unnecessary sophistication in life

Last Friday when I came home early from work, I got into the routine of taking updates about the day, from my children. My son ecstatically started discussing all he had learned about Exoplanets after reading about it in the newspapers, in school that day and how he and his friend further researched about it with their teacher. His eyes gleamed, when he proudly told me that the distance to these recently found Exoplanets is 40 light years. Great! What next? Seeing that her brother shared some amazing and impressive piece of update and knowing that she cannot let her brother hog all the limelight, my 4-year-old daughter, with great confidence and poise told me how teacher taught her about “one” and “many” in school that day. Sweet!

Now before heading home early, I had luckily heard from a long lost friend. Since I had was free, we decided to catch up over coffee, in the evening. We hadn’t been in touch for quite some time and so had a great deal to catch up on. I was amazed to learn of the data visualization expert that my friend had now become, foraying his way in these exciting times of marketing with the power of data and he is almost through with the compilation of his first book on data visualization. It was also amazing to know how he and his lovely wife, have been making the most of their lives by indulging into Scuba diving and being pro at it by traveling around whenever they can, to pursue this hobby. Wow!

So, a little before meeting this data visualizer marketer cum certified scuba diver friend of mine, I was at my close friend’s house, to finally meet her and her 20-day old infant daughter. Stepping out of office early, I had lunch at her place and spent good quality time, catching up on a whole lot of things in life. Her tiny infant took me down memory lane, reminding me of the time my daughter was born and it made me realize yet again, how fast time flies. Sigh!

Now, here comes the main plot of the story. Before I left office to meet my friend for lunch, I had come to work just to finish off these two urgent deliverables, as originally I had decided to take the day off. So, when I reached office, I happened to check my phone for messages received. There was something different in What’s App which I noticed that morning. As soon as I saw the new ‘Status’ feature there, I exclaimed, “Really? No! Why?”

Why did Facebook have to capitalize on the habit of some people, who check the status and display picture updates, of each and every one in their contact list, repeatedly throughout the day?

Why did Facebook think that it is right to force this feature on folks who not wish to join the above mentioned bandwagon?

Why the hell is Facebook, taking away whatever little precious time that people have, to make them use features that are of no use to humanity?

That morning, looking with dismay, at the new feature of What’s App, I remembered what a dear developer friend, mentioned a couple of days ago. “I think we have created unnecessary sophistication in our lives, misusing technology.” I second that. Rather than making use of technology wisely, for the better of mankind, somewhere through this rigmarole, we have lost the whole purpose. Where people should have a natural habit of drinking enough water, today they are dependent on an app that reminds them to drink water through a water-gurgling notification, whatever little free time is available, we've forgotten to make a quick call to our loved ones or to simply look up to exchange pleasantries with people around.

As the day ended and I spoke to my husband of the eventful day I had, especially since I got some good “me time”, I was glad that I made the most of it meeting close friends, getting inspired by them and reading about Exoplanets.

It is time to eliminate the unnecessary sophistication in life. It is time to take two minutes out and walk up to the nearest window to look at the blue sky and the distant trees around, to reduce the strain on your eyes. In case there isn’t much to see out of your window, then it’s time to take a break from the unnecessary sophistication in life and get away to catch up on all that you have been missing or reach out to people who are missing you.

#OneLife #ManyDreams #StaySimple