Fasten the seat belts. In-flight web connectivity will ruin our ride
The only time I’m not using my phone is when I’m forced to not use it. These moments largely include: while in the shower (no, my phone is not waterproof), when I’m sleeping, and in an aircraft. My attention span and social skills have both increasingly taken a hit because I’m easily distracted (I use my phone while watching movies) and periodically, I forget my manners (I’m on my phone while having face-to-face conversations).
Occasionally, I wear earphones for telephonic conversations so I can simultaneously text friends on WhatsApp or go through my Instagram feed. I even bought a Popsocket two months ago for better grip during texting and what not. I’m addicted to my phone, sort of. Okay no, I’m addicted to my phone. Period.
It’s a lot like my former smoking addiction. I couldn’t smoke when in the shower, when asleep, or in an aircraft. I have to restrain myself from seeing how many people stalked me on Instagram stories and how many people have liked my posts on Facebook.
Both are anxiety-inducing situations. You want more after you get some.
Very soon, flyers will be able to use the internet during the course of a domestic flight. Last month, the telecom commission approved the usage of in-flight data services and said operations should start in the next three to four months.
While this would make life so much better for so many people because “connectivity” and all that, I had a mini heart attack when I read about it.
Ironically, I read it on a flight in an actual newspaper and couldn’t help but imagine all these people around me who were trying to sleep, or read, or look out the window (we had a beautiful April sunset), suddenly get stuck to their phones and gadgets.
Soon, I was imagining elite Delhi aunties yelling at their domestic helps about what to cook for dinner, serious businessmen trying to crack large deals on the go, lovers bickering over the phone, and the uninitiated just trying to make use of the new tech, discussing with their friends about the coolness factor of phone conversations from aircraft, and rarely about how it actually sucks. For the few exercising will power, this will be nothing short of a nightmare.
Sitting quietly, having nothing much to do will soon be just a fleeting memory.
Can you imagine the blasphemy?
No? Let me help you.
Imagine posting Insta stories every time the skyscape changed, as if people posting #rainydaypix wasn’t enough. Now you won’t have backlog on your Twitter feed and how cool will it be to tweet from the sky! Not.
It isn’t unknown that social media platforms manipulate users into spending more time browsing or exploring them. In fact, Apple just introduced new tools that will help people control their smartphone usage.
Google’s Digital Wellbeing initiative aims at “creating tools and features that help people better understand their tech usage, focus on what matters most, disconnect when needed, and create healthy habits… So that life, not the technology in it, stays front and centre.”
Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) started to recognise “gaming disorder” as a disease since January this year.
While people are divided on whether tech addiction truly counts as “addiction”, some experts involved with creating social media platforms have begun to criticise their own creations. Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, believes that our minds have been hijacked by phones.
Napster founder and early Facebook investor Sean Park says Mark Zuckerberg knowingly created a monster with addictive social media and, in fact, Parker pulled out as an investor because of Facebook’s addictive nature.
These days “WiFi not available. Talk to your neighbour instead,” is a common slogan used by cafe owners to dissuade customers from using the internet. In fact, people are increasingly booking holidays to destinations of no internet access. Online publications are coming up with elaborate listicles recommending readers places to travel to if they’d like to “go off the grid”. But before I pack your imagination off to the Grenadines, let’s, for a moment, come back to the Indian airspace.
Part of sitting in an aircraft entails practising patience. People don’t usually talk to neighbours (seriously though, how many times have you actually sat next to someone interesting?), and instead spend their time sleeping or thinking or just being by themselves — listening to music or watching something on their screens. It’s sort of meditative — not having to deal with the jangling white noise of daily life.
Now babies will be crying not just around you but even on Skype calls. Your otherwise effortless excuse of “being on a plane” is no longer going to work with your boss — that’s just how capitalism works and you’ll be stuck trying to nail a PPT presentation for two and a half hours, from an aircraft.
And then the biggest curse to mankind — the ever popular, never forgiving WhatsApp groups. The one time you thought you could take a break from your chacha, chachi, mama, mami? Nah! Not anymore.
Of course, much of what you do can be avoided if you actively choose to avoid it. But how are you going to stop that teenager in the seat next to yours trying to ace an obnoxious game that makes weird repetitive sounds — as if he can’t play it if he mutes the audio? Brace yourselves, first world problems are about to get increasingly real.
This is really just the tip of the iceberg or the prologue to a tragedy. Don’t even get me started on the correlations of mental health and internet usage.
FOMO, however ridiculous, is totally real. In April, NDTV cited a study by San Francisco State University saying, “The addiction of smartphones is not much different from that of substance abuse.”
With much will power, I gave up smoking a year ago. I try to implement the same strategy with technology. I deleted the Facebook app from my phone a long time ago and only use Instagram when I’m on vacation. Twitter, I don’t quite understand. Unlike smoking, it’s hard to go cold turkey on tech, which is why I look forward to moments I’m forced to not use my phone.
Tech addiction and cigarette addiction seem equally bad. But at least cigarettes helped me take a good sh*t.