My 10-year-old daughter rushed to me this morning and asked me: “Will there be more versions of i-pad, now that this person has died?”
That is the level i-technology has pervaded into our system. We no longer just connect, we “touch” each other’s lives.
I have never been a gadget freak, not even too friendly towards technology. I just about managed to understand its power and applications. Even the choice of my mobile handset is banal for the “arrived”. The three factors that guided me to choose my handset were: making and receiving calls, sending and receiving text messages and setting the alarm clock. So my present Nokia phone with its bulging number cover thanks to having been dropped umpteen number of times by my butter fingers, has just these functions. And, it has worked very well, has kept me connected (not informed) and has been loyal to me (no complaints) as I have been to it. So is my personal Dell. We were all living happily ever after…till I was bitten by the apple bug. The i-pad did help me shed my diffidence towards technology. It seemed to work intuitively, almost like magic. It seemed like this little rectangular device understood me and willingly came alive by my touch. I felt like Midas.
Then tragedy struck. The real Midas died. I came to know only when my Facebook account was full of tributes to the tech leader, who had once said: “Thomas Edison did a lot more to improve the world than Karl Marx.” I then told myself, “Why am I unable to react the way my Facebook friends have?”
I was not alone. I had company in the form of two leading newspapers that come out in Kolkata. Both these newspapers covered Steve Jobs’ death without much ado. Newspapers across the globe splashed the news on its front pages, like the world was being struck by a calamity. I was shocked to see The Telegraph and its muted coverage of the ‘i’con (this has now become a cliché). And, this came from a newspaper, which usually reacts furiously to even street clashes, giving banner headlines every other day.
I tried to understand the reason. I developed my own little argument: technology is connected closely with market, economy and consumerism. My friend had once told me how many schools in Kolkata even today were reluctant to allow technology walk past their wrought iron gates. And, the newspapers seemed to reflect this attitude. While the media across the globe screamed and wept for Steve Jobs, the Kolkata newspapers chose to let out a silent moan.
Time to ‘i’ntrospect?
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