Eat, Pray, Tweet
J-on
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Sunday, June 12, 2011
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By CHESTER CHIN
Have you ever found the natural world to be a little, I don’t know...disconcerting at times? By natural world here, I mean everything out there other than Facebook.
Technology is rapidly becoming part and parcel of the younger generation’s life. Just like water, it is an essential aspect that sustains our very existence in this universe. In fact, a classmate once told me this about life without the Internet.
I’m quoting her exacts words here, “I would be lost, helpless, and alone without the Internet. I don’t know how to survive without it!”
What that bothered me the most was the fact that she said it with a straight face.
She was dead serious.
A little too dramatic? Perhaps, but in the light of modernization, the thought of living in a world without digital camera and (God forbid) calculator is simply mortifying.
Just the other day, a friend told me that he saw me at One Utama shopping mall.
“Wait, where did you see me? Inside MPH bookstore browsing books?” I enquired.
“No, you walk right past me at the new wing of the mall.”
“Why didn’t you stop me in my tracks and say hello or something?”
“Well, you were in a world of your own. You were tapping away on your cell phone browsing the World Wide Web or maybe tweeting about how great One Utama is with a music earphone stuck firmly in your ear. I didn’t want to interrupt you,” he said.
“Then why didn’t you call me on my phone? I would have totally talked to you. We could even go shopping together and have great retail therapy.”
From the perspective of a guy who video chats on Skype with his next door neighbour, I was merely multi-tasking. I was texting respondents for these stories I was working on and also stalking my friends’ blog.
In my defence, I was being efficient – texting, keeping tab of my social circle, listening to Rachael Yamagata on my iPod AND shopping on a weekend.
But then, a recent study that tested on people’s awareness in public areas has pointed out the flaw in this particular “act” of multi-tasking.
A clown was stationed on a busy pavement and had riding past people on a unicycle. Half of the people stopped and questioned reported that they noticed the clown. However, only 25 percent of those who were talking on their cell phone noticed the clown.
The consensus here is that a different neurological engagement is needed while having cell phone conversations. This causes us to create mental imagery that drowns out the processing of real images. Hence, the reason why many of those on the phone didn’t noticed the clown.
Instead of seeing a wonderful (or scary-looking) clown, their brain is “tricking” them into seeing something else while they were busy chatting away.
Scientists are calling this a fatal new syndrome. I, on the other hand, am just blaming it on my mobile network operator.
As I’m typing this on my laptop in a corner of a bustling cafeteria, there is a real danger going on out there. The truth remains that most young people are staking their life on a virtual world through laptops and cell phones where Twitter and YouTube take centre stage.
The scary thing here is that we can’t even distinguish between where our real life begins and alternate Facebook one ends.
To all you optimistic people, wake up and smell the coffee. There is life beyond technology.
And, in the event where you see a guy walking past you while busy tapping on his phone with an earphone stuck in his ear, please do say hi.
> Follow Chester Chin at www.twitter.com/chesterchin
