And Then...

A good number of people i know, complain about my negligent nature...in handling my mobile phone. No, i dont dare to drop it 'n' number of times, for it is not a Nokia...but my negligence lies in sticking around it..or vice-versa. The handset i own spent about 2 years with me, of which, it has been in silent mode for atleast 75% of the time. Though i do not argue about the utility of a mobile phone, i find it really annoying. whats annoying is not the calls but the fact that i have to constantly carry this little-weighty external device. the sense of botheration associated with it, is even more irritating than the botheration itself. I was probably 23 when i got my first mobile. and i have stopped using it in between, when i was 24-25. what a peaceful period it was. I still have this urge to discard my mobile phone and i am tempted to do so, if not for the sake of few reasons which bind it to me. Afterall, i have managed without it for 23 years in my life. Discounting the years when i really didnt need it, probably i survived well without a mobile a phone, for atleast 10years. Not bad!

i recently read a couple of articles in the magazine - 'The Economist', which spoke about the evolving changes in the patterns of human behaviour, be it in offices or in social circles, as a result of the growth in mobile communications. One article starts off on a rightly profound note - Sometimes the biggest changes in society are hardest to spot because they are hiding in plain sight. This article deliberates on the how the rapid changes in mobile communications are giving way to what is called as 'Digital Nomadism'. Faster cellular networks, Wi-Fi hotspots and new gadgets to connect to these networks are probably the new vehicles of changing social behaviour.

Nomads, in ancient times, were wanderers who carried all their belongings along with them. Digital Nomads, quite contrastingly, do not carry anything except for their most precious belonging - Wireless Gadget. Thats it, we have business professionals who need just a BlackBerry to avoid going to office. Another interesting thought discussed in the article was the comparison between cars and mobile phones. Cars, apart from other resources, did have a role in the division of cities - into residental areas and office areas, atleast in the west. Such a trend is now catching up in India too. It is now predicted that the wireless technologies would be mixing up these divisions again. With increasing road-traffic problems and related health hazards, future professionals might as well adopt 'work-from-home' concept, all with a hi-fi dedicated network. Should such a trend arrive, there would an interesting change in the dynamics. People would feel liberated from the coccoons of office cubicles. but what about the relationship between people in the office. the word 'colleague' typically means much more than 'we work in same place'. it also stretches to across to someone with whom we have a relationship whose bandwidth lies between 'official acquaintance' to 'friendship'. if people rarely get to visit office, thanks to improved wireless communications, would the word 'colleague' hold any signficance? How would our social perceptions change, if we get to interact through (or with) only emails, instant messages and avatars? if we get used to such a kind of working environment, how would we see the concept of 'Human Contact', in the context of 'Office culture'?

to be continued...