Most of us grew up with stories such as snow white. This particular story strikes me most: since the laptops are getting sleeker and planner and resembles to that of a mirror - not literally but at least in dimension. So you ask why should I compare my mighty laptop to a mirror? Well, the mirror in snow white's story was a visionary one; it used to tell who was the most fairest of all, and probably had some global sensing schemes in it. Where as my laptop is something that tells me what is happening in everyone's life I knew or I did not know, what is happening in science, what is happening in conferences, what jobs are available just to tell a few. On the top of it, it has a camera, that I can not only see myself on the computer screen but also take pictures or record videos. So, it has the mirror like property with a zillions of enhancement!!
While growing up in the 80's and early 90's, I used to see the anxiety of my parents when the post man came at a particular time of the day. Even my father could not hold his anxiety any longer and he used to visit the post office daily. What if the post man misses a important letter was his argument. If a letter comes, then it will be read aloud to tell us what is going on with our relatives. That was the only way we stayed connected. And the letters used to get stored in a box. On an average a letter from each of the family members will arrive in a month or so time and that to if we send a reply. Otherwise it may take longer. Letter used to just highlight on important updates - not daily livings. Sometimes telegrams were sent/received to convey message that somebody died or there was a new born in the family. Things changed gradually by mid nineties where we had phones, but they did cost a lot to make an STD call. But post millennium, there is a sudden surge in communication mediums available. We have phones that are free to many International destinations. Then we have this high speed internet, that has completely revolutionized our lives. I consider google and internet as the biggest discoveries of the century. Ask why. Anyone having internet and basic computer operating knowledge knows how convenient life has become with these tools. We have social, professional networking, blogging, microblogging sites where we get updates on lots of aspects of ones life. Then we have this free online newspapers, we have pod casts, web conferences training programs, free online books, open access journals, online dictionaries so on and so forth. We have this friendly search engine google that helps us find the web page, that we may not otherwise find. Similarly, we don't need to remember the direction to a place, we don't need to buy card(there is always this e-card, print it out). Believe it or not, I don't even remember the url of my blog site, google tells me where it is located. Similarly, you can store your favorite books, links, research papers using large number of free tools that is mind boggling and empowering...
Another property of e-communication is: we communicate much better this way than we ever do on face! I am sure some of you will not agree with me on this, but I will give you an example here that may sound convincing. Dr. X is a great person and a greater scientist. But when you go to his office, he looks at you puzzled with a look that tells "Why are you here"? Initially everyone just get surprised with the look, but now I think I would rather like to behave like Dr.X than any different. The reason is, if I have a question in mind, and I just barge into Dr. X's office, who obviously being busier may be thinking about something more important. How good is it for me to just barge in and forcibly interrupt it? I should rather send an email asking what questions I have. So, depending upon the set up he may hear a bell ding on arrival of this new email and choose to open it or not. Sometimes, he may see the subject line and decide to do it the next day when his mind is relatively free. That way he does not have to get interrupted when there is a better option - on the hind sight, if your requirement is most urgent, then you may leave an urgent tag to your email. I think that should work most of the time. In my day to day interactions with people, I find people communicate best through e medium. They remember that you are out of town when they see the message on your facebook or elsewhere, where as if you had personally told them so, they have forgotten it!! Most of the people these days have a very short attention span and they generally don't tend to listen to the person talking to them. Similarly, if you want to argue with someone, or prove a point, it is better to send it through email. You not only have enough time to think and put the right words into it, you also have the privilege to hide your tone, which may reveal your true feelings. This is just my 2 cents and it has worked for me in the past.
So, well, then it all comes back to laptop and e communication and that is why I call my laptop as the mirror that tells me all!! For me information is knowledge and knowledge is power! I am glad that I am a tiny entity on this information superhighway. So I would say go people go just take advantage of this information explosion.
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