With each other or half a world away ?

I gaze at you but I fail to see you there
my senses and eyes are sealed over
dashing obliquely
petulantly looking at my phone
anticipating an alert for notification of
A comment, a tweet, a like, a status update.

I hear you however I fail to listen
my senses and ears are tweaked into music
from a distant land
Intermingled with ting-a-lings

Those convey it to me that I have an unread message waiting.

I am with you but my brain is elsewhere
with somebody more fascinating
more likeable
Somebody whom I am yet to meet
Somebody I am yet to talk to in person
Somebody, whose name I barely know

I relish the manner we snuggle in front of the television
while I celebrate in the limelight
from co-Facebookers, co-tweeters, co-Instagramers
and chortle mutely when my opinion is liked
retweeted or climbs the popularity charts.

I treasure our time with each other
I see your face shining with love
and mine in the light of my
valued device.
We seem picture-perfect for each other.

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It’s astounding how much has evolved ever since the late 80s and early 90s when Zack Morris (a TV show character) was given a mobile phone the dimension of a sandwich, and antennae and phone boxes were fitted in cars so that people could enjoy a “car phone.” 

It has virtually fully converted to a different world since then. And what’s also most interesting is how much the world spins around their smartphone comrades — phones like Droid and iPhone. Debate between which one is better is another story.  These smartphones are now hardly used as just phones – you know the kinds we used a few 10 years back – the kinds which could make and receive calls and send messages?, These smartphones are rather portable computers. The propensity for people to detach has considerably amplified, not because it’s preferred, but because it’s just too simplified now. There may still be the yearning for a relationship, but it’s become tougher to get driven when it’s easier to self-distract now.

The Internet and smartphones have fundamentally become a lifestyle in an alternate reality. How much devotion and focus is invested in playing a game on a smartphone or cell phone rather than spending that valuable time with family or friends, or making sociable banter in queue at the grocery store, or on bus stop?

Understandably, the solution isn’t to surrender our social media devices. The concern seeps in when our dosages of alternate reality and real life become imbalanced to the stage where the alternate reality conquers us. We find ourselves relating more with the technology in front of us — even if there’s a living person on the other end.

Finally, a slight disconnection expectantly will lead way for a reconnection to those epitomes and objectives that are most imperative to you, even if those epitomes were formed in a world massively diverse from the present-day.

Don’t have a smartphone? Don’t fret! Because you have what others do not have – Time for yourself.

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