Tuesday 24 April 2012

Technokids

Today's advancing technology has made kids much more tech savvy -- sometimes a bit too much. Kids no longer run out onto the streets at 5 p.m. to make sure they are the first to set foot on the playgrounds and assure themselves a place off the list of "denners". They, instead, are concerned about how their characters in the virtual gaming world can polish their skills. At school, little girls gossip of fashion games and little boys go on about cars and virtual wars,etc. 

Contrast this with the seniors of the school, that's us. We pride ourselves on doing a variety of things. But where exactly does all this activity of ours show up? Not in the real world for sure. Out there, all we can manage to cramp into a day are food, sleep and study. No, we seniors are robots in the real world. It's only in the social network that we become ourselves. One of my friends was running about the campus trying to borrow a mobile internet from someone just as Dr.Kalam's car was leaving the school. I couldn't figure out the reason for her frantic mindset. Two hours ago when I'd asked her whether she was excited about Dr.Kalam's arrival, she had barely uttered a "hmm" through shut lips that were set on an expressionless face. Later in the evening I logged in to my account at Facebook and scrolled down over ten posts displaying an array of excitements(some with 5 or 6 exclamation marks!). She wasn't the only one with posts of the kind. A whole crowd of people who had seemed bored at the event were unable to stall their excitement for even a few minutes.  They, who had been close to statues at school, were literally excited jumping jacks on Facebook!

I had failed to comprehend the implications of this behavior until last night when an unexpected hailstorm hit our locality. After a few minutes, as if by instinct, I picked up the cellphone and began texting my friends from out of  station.