Analog Heart Stuck in a Digital World

Like the three eyed raven so to speak!

From the start of my life till today, there has been one thing that has driven me to get out of bed do whatever it is that I do. It’s a thing called Passion! Passion is an important thing for me because I get motivated and do whatever I need to do because I love to do what I do. Sometimes I have had great passion to do amazing things and many times I've had even better days because of the things that I've learned while doing anything I did from the time I've been born.

When I was a kid, I enjoyed reading comics and enact my superheroes because I was passionate about the stories that they told me. An inspiration that they gave me to be a person that I couldn't be in real life. I used to enjoy going out and playing games with friends and excel in those because, they gave me a feeling of exhilaration that nothing else gave me. Competitive sports helped me better myself each time I tried it out. I realized newer things about myself and my life which I didn't know. I hated math in school because I struggled at it. I loved English, Social Studies, Science because I enjoyed it and had a passion for it. I loved reading about people, places, history, the world and I had the curiosity that helped me build that passion. I still love writing, reading, science, history and of course Geography, considering the travel bug bit me about six years ago…

When I grew a little older, I started enjoying a lot more than just playing video games, sports, reading comics or the simple pleasures of enjoying a good time with friends in the park, on the terrace, cycling or for that matter participating in events, festivals and a lot of activities that drove me crazy about so many amazing things I did. I started listening to Music, the radio and some interesting shows that were a big part of my life while growing up as an adolescent boy in the early 90's! Music gave me an exposure to a world that was not heard of. There was this thing called World Space radio, which I couldn't really afford, neither did I get a chance to buy, but boy was it a dream or what. Despite the lack of access to it, I had other channels and avenues to listen to music that was never heard of. Your Walkman was your iPod.

World Music especially gave me a window to something that wasn't easily accessible as it is today. Reading the World Book Encyclopedia when I was 10 years old was like accessing Internet as we do today. The reason I had that passion was because I had access to instruments, ability to thrive on the thirst for knowledge and most importantly gaining the ability to find my identity which I believe is something I cherish even today when I look back at those memories. My father was a scientist and I have him to thank for, to introduce me to these instruments. I enjoyed those chats with him when I was a kid. Chats about the world, philosophy, science and a lot more when there were power outages, yes, you heard that right. Power cuts were a common phenomenon back in the day. He used to talk about interesting things, things that today are very easy for any teenager to look up at the touch of a finger. Theory of Relativity, Gravity, Space (ref: Childcraft Book No 5. The Universe) were always a constant discussion for us. I remember learning rules of Basketball and Baseball through the World Book Encyclopedia. There was no Cable TV when I was a kid. We had our antenna DD 1 and DD 2. Spider man, He-Man, Jungle Book, Duck Tales, Talespin were Monday morning classroom conversations. Library period was the time when we borrowed Tintin, Asterix and Obelix from some of our classmates and traded our issues with theirs to enjoy those 30 minutes of transportation to a world of fantasy without a blink of an eye.
Some of the interesting phenomenons back in the day was something called as ‘Chain Letters’ and oh yeah, pen pals. I had one too. A pen pal from South Korea. A girl who I used to write as a teenager. Send small gifts out, cards and communicate with each other. I did that for a few months and later on got bored. An interesting idea because we didn't have access to the whole world. But simple things such as waiting for their letter, gave you so much joy than your momentary madness where you keep wondering why you haven’t received a reply especially after a ‘tick’ mark or ‘two ticks,’ in fact now the ‘blue ticks.’ (Ref: Whatsapp)
Then came ‘The Internet.’ Yes the very ‘medium’ through which I’m reaching out to you wouldn't have existed, if it wasn't for the Internet, pun intended. That became a further fascination for the world that we were part of, because we now had the ability to reach out to a wider audience. Talk to people across the world. The ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, Rediff, Geocities chats were the ‘Social Networks’ of our teenage life, for that matter early adulthood. Yes, Internet girlfriends was a real thing! You don’t have a Hotmail/Yahoo ID? was an equivalent of You don’t have a gmail id today. My first access to a blog was in 2005 when Blogger wasn't part of Google! I used to write on Writing.com and exchange views and get feedback from people across the world on this global forum for things I used to write, unlike today, where you get ‘Likes, Comments and Shares,’ moments after you've published something out there in whatever form you like.
But honestly, whatever happened after that, in retrospect is a fifty-fifty for me. Either I’m truly burnt out or find that the small joys of an analog life are truly destroyed that I’m writing this as we speak. I really don’t enjoy being that connected in this ‘Digital World’ any more. I find it overwhelming that each and every single day I’m addicted to this beast of a thing called, the Internet and tomorrow we shall… rather today we have another beast called The Internet of Things!
I don’t know if I’m really saying this or is it just the frustration within me of over consumption of all the new media and being active on these platforms courtesy my curiosity and for that matter finding a job that has each and everything to do with this medium or instrument of mass media which I found passion in earlier that has driven me to this conclusion. There is a way things worked back then. There was an interesting amount of curiosity and level of ambition in the way we did things and today there is the so called, ‘Social Web.’ We may think it makes us more efficient in communicating with each other, but over a period of time it actually makes us otherwise. I’m sure I’m late to the party and there are a plethora of articles, YouTube Videos, Brands on social channels that are advocating ‘Un-Plug.’ I mean, it’s the irony of it that makes this phenomenon so beautiful, but yes, a lot of communication and media professionals within my country or globally are practicing their own ways of unplugging from this madness only to keep their sanity. I've heard in China, there are counselling and therapy sessions for addiction to the Internet. I’m trying on my own ways, however I struggle sometimes. I realize that in my own life. My relationships with my wife, my parents and friends. But I really haven’t been successful because it is so addictive.
I NEED HELP! I’m sure each of us do. It’s an irony that I’d probably reach out to you and share this very message on one of these or rather all of these platforms. No it’s not a satire, it’s a genuine heartfelt confession that I've been mulling over for probably a few weeks now and found the time as well as inclination to pen down these thoughts after a lot of contemplation.
But interestingly enough, I realized that when I’m traveling, I’m a lot disconnected and completely out of the foray of connectivity! So, travel is a good thing for us. To really connect with yourself, be with each other, take time out with friends. Mostly on weekends, I’ll try to be disconnected, as much as possible. Watch movies with my wife, meet friends if possible, if not, read up some books, listen to the radio, travel, anything I could get my hands on that doesn't tell me what’s happening across the world that is out there, but to create a world that I have carried around within my heart even as I peaked into the digital world from an analog era.
That starkly eerie realization that I have completely traveled and I say literally traveled ‘Back To The Future!’ because I can truly say that I’m nothing but an Analog heart that is somehow stuck in this limbo, called the Digital World and can only hope for a future that doesn't make me a digital zombie, if I haven’t become one already!