Ink Drift August

Issue 1 - Confession
Confession of a Millennial
Confession of a Millennial
Husain Rokadia
We have come a long way from the analogue landlines to touch-screen
mobile devices, from steam engines to high speed bullet trains, from
“who let the dogs out” to “shape of you” & “despacito”, from Orkut to
Facebook and Instagram and from meeting at the coffee house to video conferencing,
somewhere we lost track of ourselves and have become this instant
gratification addicts. Be it food, a walk in a park or even a tough bowel movement,
we are right there to “post” it all, “snapchat” it or even write about it on
our “wall”, pun intended.
What once stood true for the World Wide Web (www.) bringing us closer has
become its own bane. We are all connected yet so distant, the information of the
world fits in our palm but we do not know our own neighbours. Our need and
desire for instant gratification has made us beasts, whose hunger for likes, upvotes,
shares, subscribers & followers never end. Self-respect is often measured
by the amount of number of likes and comments. This urge for instant-gratification
has torn us apart in addicted, self-doubting individuals who value their
self-worth as per public response to a selfie or a clever comment.
Twitter has become the twisted version of a Salon. What once used to be a contest
of minds has become a shouting competition. Let’s not even get started on
tolerance issue these days. There is almost nothing you can say that will not
offend someone these days, be it a die-hard political “karyakarta” (fan) or a
Bollywood personality or a public figure. The time of respecting another’s views
have long gone for us.
The digital world has mesmerized us beyond belief, our romance has become
sexting, our trust has become displaced in people who like our “DP”, we have
lost the value of conversations, sadly small talk has become deep.
Some might think we already know about this, why even write/talk about it.
But, we need to talk about it because accepting the problem is the first step in
its correction.
We have been blessed with the best of intelligence, capability and emotional
strength of our world yet we squander our virtues when we could achieve so
much, because it bears more value to believe in it and do something about it
than like a picture/post that alarms you of some wrong amidst us.
It is time we gather ourselves and rise above this petty desire for likes, upvotes,
comments, re-tweets, etc. and build a society on gratification of merit and virtue.
This is the Confession of the Gen Y.
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