View
212
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
59Digit | May 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com
Kartik Kulkarni is a bemused young man. Born in the ‘80s, he’s part of the generation that first-hand saw the explosion of digital technology
into our homes, here in India and around the world. As technology broke one formidable barrier after another – be it in the way Kartik communicated, seeked information, entertained him-self and got things done to live his life – he couldn’t help but notice that the world was coming together, becoming smaller and getting in his reach better than ever before. Kulkarni admits, with a wry smile, a reality that not only him but everyone faced while adjusting and adapting to life in the digital age. Health. Not just physical but mental health.
From getting his first computer in the mid ‘90s as a teenager, getting hooked on to reading technology magazines, slowly substituting the time spent outdoors playing real sports with video games on the television or his PC, and other such digital digressions. Slowly but surely, Kartik’s life was taking a major turn onto the digital highway. Consuming an over-whelming amount of digital content at an early age made Kartik innately different than his parents’ generation in more ways than one. Later in the new millen-nium, as smart devices started cropping up and the internet became accessible to one and all, Kartik Kulkarni, much like Alice (in Wonderland) fell even deeper
into the rabbit hole of the digital era, until he realized that there’s no escaping from it. He was mesmerized by technology at first, marvelling at its novelty and slowly getting enamoured by its ubiquity.
Kartik started suffering from the side-effects of adjusting to an overdependent tech lifestyle. Hours spent playing video games and working on his PC led to a rapid deterioration of his eyesight and
he attracted spectacles while still in his teens. An increasingly sedentary lifestyle became the dominating feature of Kartik’s existence, where he started putting on weight and growing sideways much more than was desirable – the lean and fit boy who conquered the district trophy by playing a crucial role in his school’s win-ning cricket team was lost in the shadows. Online friends became the dominating
Jayesh Shinde
Working those late nights and not grabbing enough sleep can impact you adversely
Our quest to realize our body and mind’s true health potential begins with keeping the harmful effects of our interaction with technology at bay
live lonG And prosper
Cover story
60 Digit | May 2014 | www.thinkdigit.com
comfortable existence on, are in fact con-tributing to our poor shape, deteriorating health and a myriad of physiological and psychological problems. Somewhere the lifestyle we’re leading doesn’t agree with our constitution. We need to bring about a radical change either in our life or the tech-nology we’re building to ensure mankind doesn’t fall off the wagon and devolve into something pitiful or a mass of blob.
Somehow, somewhere, not just Kartik Kulkarni, but all of us who’re glued to our smartphones, tablets, PCs, more than we should be, need a course correction. We need to learn to co-exist with the technology that we use without letting it adversely affect our mind and body. We need to reclaim lost ground, and there’s a lot of work to be done on that front. We need to put technology to work
in ways that we shall remain untouched by its harmful effects.
And the answer doesn’t involve unplugging yourself. Or throwing that smartphone or tablet away. Welcome to a new dawn in consumerized healthcare solutions that will help you reclaim your lost health back.
factor of Kartik’s life as real-life social gatherings, with friends, relatives, and even his own family started to reduce in frequency. Later when Kartik grew older and started working in the IT sector, he realized that he was getting sucked deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. And any hopes of escaping it were fast evaporating. There was no end in sight from this cushy, comfortable existence.
technology works against your healthProbably not right down to the tee, but all of us born before the turn of the century can relate to Kartik’s story in some shape or form. It is probably the greatest irony of our times that in an age where tech-nology is breaking new ground in every possible way, trying to make our life easier and comfortable beyond belief, us humans are ill-equipped to enjoy the benefits of all this technological wonder to the fullest, probably getting paralyzed by an overbearing dependence on it. And it’s costing us our health.
Isolation, depression, stress, poor sleeping habits and obesity are just some
of the ill-effects of a lifestyle that hasn’t successfully adjusted to its overdepend-ence on technology and the digital age of the 21st century. Constant distraction, shortened attention spans, addiction and reduced eyesight and hearing are also some other companions of a life spent constantly plugged in.
There’s a growing sense of concern amongst our race that technology has made our existence cushier, way more
comfortable than how we’re supposed to exist and live in this world. There’s an overbearing sense of fatigue on all things digital, and a recognition of its harmful effects on human health (in the absence of precautions and a balanced lifestyle, of course). The technological marvels we all heralded in raptures, hinged our cosy
WE NEED To ANALyzE hoW TEchNoLoGy Is ImpAcTING us, rIGhT from ThE chAIr WE sIT oN WhILE AT our pc To hoW mANy hours WE’rE
sTArING AT DIGITAL scrEENs
Late last year, a University of Michigan
research and study concluded that using
Facebook can reduce young adults’ sense
of well-being and satisfaction with life,
according to a BBC report. The research
that tracked participants’ behaviour for two
weeks concluded that “checking Facebook
made people feel worse about both issues,
and the more they browsed, the worse they
felt.” While the largest social network does a
great job of connecting people, Facebook can
have negative psychological consequences
too. And their rate is increasing as more and
people are embracing it and spend more
time on it.
Web isn’t all goodOn the Web’s 25th anniversary, according
to a study by Pew Research Center, 15 per
cent of Internet users feel that the Web
has been bad for society and bad for them
personally as well. The research group
confirms noticing a trend of rising issues
over the years that tend to gnaw at people
about online life, according to Lee Rainie,
director of the center’s Internet and
American Life Project.
The Web is notorious for increasing the
digital divide between the “haves” and the
“have-nots”, increasing instances of online
bullying, encouraging to communicate only
with like-minded people, and more. Major
concerns abound regarding the Web’s ability
to spread misinformation, the loss of privacy,
and the loss of real human contact in favor
of virtual interactions, according to the
study. Read more here: http://dgit.in/1i7Ukcw
Raising digital nativesChildren of this generation are automatically
digital natives, born in a world of smart-
phones and the internet. Research suggests
what we label as “addiction” to technology
– with kids and infants – may actually be
normal. However, care should be taken that
kids interact with the physical environment
around them to live and learn, and not just
be stuck inside a house glued to a screen all
the time (and get obese). A word of caution
to parents raising kids in today’s age, is to
monitor kids’ exposure to technology to
prevent some of the obvious side-effects to
getting exposed to too much too soon.
A research (funded by the European
Commission’s Safe Internet Programme)
called ‘Net Children Go Mobile’ monitored
internet activity among 9-16 year olds
in Ireland, UK, Italy, Portugal, Denmark,
Romania and Belgium, and found that double
the amount of children surveyed said they
had encountered upsetting things online
than those surveyed two years previous.
This needs to change, obviously.
Facebook is bad For psyche
Cover story
Recommended