Being selective is back and with all due respect to Hrithik Roshan…
An article in the newspaper recently gave out a statistic that just amazed me- 6 out of every 10 people in this world have access to a cell-phone. Surely that has got to be more than the number of people who have access to affordable medical care.
To me this technology, more than anything else, will be held responsible for the next wave of change in our societies. Consider the advertising for SMS rates by two rival companies in India. Both have culturally liberal references, clearly positioning the cell phone as a tool that empowers youngsters and allows them to break communication and self explanation barriers imposed by traditional societies. One shows a young girl talking about an earth-shattering kiss with her boy friend while having breakfast with her parents, and the other shows a pair of young lovers SMSing each other sweet nothings in a college locker room.
So the individual is back in fashion and she can talk whatever she wants to whoever she wants and ignore those she chooses to. Caller ID lets you select who you talk to and who you don’t. Far more empowering than the good old shared land line at home which would be answered by your mother who would then yell out that xyz was on the phone for you and you had to take the call.
Sending an SMS is considered a social act. You do not have to physically meet people to hang out with them. What is more, the cell phone companies even allow you to define what “groups” you belong to. So while by birth you may be a Punjabi speaking, North Indian, Vegetarian, you may choose to add anyone to your “friend circle” – even a meat eating, Bengali speaking, colleague from Kolkatta- so that you can get cheaper calling rates when you talk to them. Consider, today I am Sakshi Goel, that is how I introduce myself- tomorrow my kids may simply choose to share a 10 digit number with people they meet.
I am not denying that the “non-social” aspect of this is bothersome. Can an SMS ever be a real substitute for a good old hug, pat on the back or a tug-of-war with friends and siblings? Can total empowerment at a young age be completely okay? Like the guy in the new coke TV advertisement points out- no one wants to sit together and watch a game of cricket. They merely want to SMS to each other. So a bottle of Coke is needed to bring them together- physically and create friend circles.
To conclude- while the cell phone may or may not make us all self-centered loners who only have virtual contacts, one thing is for sure, the furious pace at which we use our thumbs to jab away those messages- soon kids will be born with two sets of those large digits. One to SMS and the other for all other tasks. Surely that makes Hrithik Roshan not just an unbelievable dancer but evolution’s early indication of things to come.
