MID-WEEK MUSING

Humanity in the shadow of virtuality

Now that technology has become part and parcel of daily existence, it has, by virtue of addiction, relegated to the  background intimate human social interactions.  

The Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, speaks on this disturbing anomaly.

I relax mostly by reading books and stories from other parts of life. Sometimes, in order for me to be a normal human being, I choose a moment to put off my mobile phones and visit people like we did as children and adults in those years. Human beings are becoming more digital. The phone has made so many things easier for us and it has also complicated life. It has removed us away from our humanity. The phone has killed the calendar, camera, compass, wrist watches and personal relationships. Those days, as children, if visitors came to your house, you gave them your family photo album and they would ask you questions about the pictures. These days, when visitors come to your house, from the time they step into your house till they leave, their attention will be on their phones. So, you will see people together but apart. The social media is most likely going to change the anatomy of human beings because people now bend their heads more than they raise it. The fingers that we only used to eat; now we use it more to press and some people now stay indoors more than they go out. Even our children, if you give them an iPad, they will not look at their toys again. We can see how it has been able to destroy their lives in that aspect and people can spend a whole day on phone or iPad rather than going out to do exercise. Sometimes, I decide to break this cycle; I go out to the gym or visit friends without a mobile phone because I want to behave like a normal person. Sometimes, I even go to the post office to post letters just to bring those nostalgic memories back. This is the way I like to relax.

Extract from an interview published in Sunday Punch (August 5, 2018) on pages 38 & 39

*Addendum*

Even on long vacations, children can no longer stay at home. After two weeks of being at home, they have to make it back to school for summer coaching! The children don't want to be seen in and around the home. According to their parents, they have lessons of the next class they have been promoted to to take so that they can be better prepared! Well, school proprietors are up to the task because they are the beneficiaries, financially at least. Parents say they are busy, but the school takes them up. Unfortunately, school cannot be home for these children. For a number of them, they don't even know what a home is other than a physical structure that shelters  them. 

banjititles returns on Friday with Weekend Digest.