Real World vs. Virtual World

_{Credit: Pixabay}

---

In today's age everything is getting digitalized rapidly and Covid-19 seems to be playing a huge role in speeding up the process.

It seems like the main agenda of humanity in this century is to move into digital space.

Most of the tech companies find it easy at this time since their whole work process is based on using computers and networks.

Not only tech companies but even the most non tech based companies like garages, sales and marketing, physical shops are getting digitalized.

How you ask?

When it comes to physical stores, you already know e-commerce has become so popular and most and every physical store is setting up their online store or are moving to services like Amazon.

Same goes for sales and marketing...we market our products to the targeted customers through influencers and then redirect them to our e-commerce store for purchasing.

What about the garage line you ask?

They are not lagging behind either. Various apps like GoMechanic and Pitstop have taken over.

Nowadays, all we have to do is select the timing of pick up/drop and the kind of service you want done and the garage guys will come over to your place, pick up your car and then drop it off after the servicing is complete.

Heck, even the local fishermen started selling their catch through Instagram pages!

How convenient isn't it?

However, there is a dark side to this technology as well. Although it saves our time in some ways, it ends up sucking most of our time in other unnecessary apps and digital platforms.

Now, we know that in information age, attention equates money. If any app is getting the maximum number of eyeballs and and is able to hold them longer, it automatically thrives.

Take for example, the recent trending app TikTok. Billions of people are glued on to that app to watch teenagers dance, lipsync and do lots of other stupid shit which basically doesn't add any value to the audience's lives.

Unfortunately that is just one example. There are many others like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook which has grabbed and held the attention of billions more, including myself and most of you.

When somebody tries to steal our money, we safeguard it with all we can but sadly when these apps ask for our attention we freely give it away to them not knowing that we are giving a part of our life away which will never come back.

To illustrate this point, here's a sketch that I drew that came to my mind randomly one fine day (the day I drew the guitar sketch).

At first glance it may seem that our phones keep going because of battery but think about it deeply... without human attention, of what use are all the apps and games?

When I look at the young generation being immersed into computer games and gadget most of the time, it seems to me that the future generation is headed into complete digitalization of their lives.

In future, their brains could be fixed into a computer system and they could live whatever kinda life they want and however many times they want inside that computer simulation.

Reminds me of the science fiction animated series called Rick and Morty. You should really watch it if you like gadgets, technology, time travel and dimensional travel stuff.

So, what do I intend to do next?

I'm thinking of breaking my habit of leaking my attention to these apps every now and then.

How do I plan to do it?

Digital detox.

For a full day, tomorrow I will go offline. Instead of spending my time online, I'll try to spend it trying to learn guitar and meditate.

Off late, I've become obsessed with wanting to spend each and every second of time doing some thing productive like reading a book.

But when I think about it, it's also a kind of bad habit since it happens in autopilot. I don't even slowdown to think.
Also, I get frustrated when I'm not doing anything.

Because of continuous consumption, I went into cognitive overload a few weeks ago.

So, this will be my first step in slowing down a bit and becoming conscious of what I'm doing.

It will definitely be difficult... very difficult. But I'm up for the challenge.

And talking about going digital, I think in a few years, whoever hasn't moved to digital space is going to get obsolete.

So, ladies and gents, keep upgrading yourself, go digital and at the same time, try your best not to become it's prisoner.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Cheers!