In 2014, a very penetrating book written by Erik Brynjolfsson ( a tongue twister of a name), director at MIT and one of the foremost voices in the evangelization of the digital era along with Andrew Mcafee, a research scientist – was published to much acclaim from the industry and techno enthusiasts alike. The book has a very optimistic title to it: “The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in the time of brilliant technologies”. It sounds good, right? It is a short book, written in a breezy style with well-researched facts, compelling anecdotes, and resonating corporate success stories liberally sprinkled across each page. It became a best-seller and continues to be one of the most cited books on the benefits of a digital world. After reading this book, one could be excused for feeling a sense of euphoria and begin to believe that all of us are on a luxury cruise headed towards a technological utopia, and nothing better could have happened to mankind than the blessing of this rosy digital age. After Steam and electricity, Information technology is the thing, say the authors with resolute conviction. And therefore, even if we face minor inconveniences here and there, temporarily, in our personal lives, in adapting to this technological infiltration, it is for the good; eventually, we would and “should” catch up with the juggernaut of digitization. That is where our future lies.
The last twenty years have changed the face of technology. It is no more something out there, helping build better machines and automobiles and space crafts. Technology has become part of our homes, our private lives. The lethal combination of internet connectivity, cheaper and more powerful hardware, and the magic of software, has led to an explosion of gadgets that are not merely labor-saving devices ( which was the original thought behind industrialization or computers); they have become our alter egos, extensions to ourselves, and frighteningly – our very persona. It has infiltrated our lives, and slowly, imperceptibly has taken over a lot of things, including our personal, emotional, and family space. Don’t get me wrong. We don’t want to rewind this progress. We love our technology. We are intrigued and mystified by it, like a child playing with toys, and wish to possess it more and more. We don’t seem to have much choice either in the matter, our world is inexorably moving towards digitalization, and not all of us are adequately prepared for this fundamental shift in the understanding of personal spaces and adjustment to this new paradigm of living. Technology is evolving at a rapid rate, at the same time, the digital divide among people is also increasing. This trend is exacerbated by the generational gaps in the modern world.
A few weeks ago, I was researching for a talk on the generation gaps in the workplace. It struck me during the study that our’s ( this period) is the first time in the history of mankind when four generations of people are living together, thanks to advancements in medical science and a decrease in mortality rates. We have the traditionalists born between 1927 – 1946 during the world wars; the Baby boomers:1947 – 1964, the time of great optimism and a spirit of hard work; the Generation X: 1965 – 1980 a time of cynicism because of the Vietnam wars, communism and a general sense of disillusionment and confusion over the idea and meaning of progress; the Millenials: 1980 – 2000, the age when computers began to proliferate; and then finally the Generations Z: 2000 – 2020, a generation that does not know how to live without a cell phone. Not only is the effect of these gaps glaringly visible in the workplace; it shows up with greater intensity at home, especially those homes in the developing world where families still live together and are not yet splintered into nuclear homes as is the case in many developed nations.
How do these gaps manifest themselves? it starts with the smartphone. When Steve Jobs stood up on the fateful podium in 2007 to announce the release of the iPhone, something fundamentally shifted. He was ushering in a tool that would forever change the way people live their lives. In fourteen years, since the eventful day, there are close to 3.8 billion smartphones in the world, and nearly 49 % of the population use them on a daily basis, not so much for talking to one another, but as a refuge, a public persona, a tool for information and more importantly as an artifact to disguise, subsume or create new identities in place of what we have. Within a single home, individual family members are cocooned, arrested, and secluded, and seduced by their own devices. We murmur smile and nowadays even talk to it with increasing regularity. We wait with bated breath for acknowledgments, appreciation, praise, and a single like on Facebook becomes worth more than a hug or a physical pat on the back. We are irritated with elders who don’t know how to use this contraption. Worse, we are condescending towards them. This strange, transfixing tool six to seven inches in length has become a genie in the box. We summon its powers when required. Those who struggle, who cannot fathom its secrets are gradually relegated as outcasts of society. They are not ” internet-savvy”, as we euphemistically term it. What exactly is a whatsup account, how the hell does it operate? What is Facebook? Is it some esoteric community to which we gain privileged access, and once done, are we privy to a newer dimension of life? What is Tik-Tok, what is Instagram? What are all those icons, buttons, images, and navigational pointers on this small screen? Which one do I press, and which should I, for heaven’s sake, not? Even more frightening and unnerving is the etiquette for this digital world. How do we communicate, which emoji is appropriate for what occasion? We had a tough time learning a language at school, and now in the last ten years, in the advanced years of our lives, we are forced to know the meaning of these hieroglyphical icons and characters on a strange device, otherwise, we are branded as technological pariahs. We need apps to monitor our screen time. Can you believe it? The screen-time apps will tell you how much time you have spent watching the screen as if all of us are zombies and don’t have control over what we do. Perhaps, we don’t. Who knows? We prefer gazing at our phones when someone in the family is talking to us. We consider the conversation to be a distraction and not what we are doing with the phone. Surprising!! We work ourselves into a frenzy ( not openly always) when we don’t get a response on whatsup or Facebook. The interim period between posting something and receiving a response is a psychological hell. We shut off from everything else. We nervously keep pecking at the phone, and our senses are tuned to pick up the ring or beep that marks an incoming message, and once it arrives, we jump at it with nervous agitation. We need to know the answer, we need that digital reinforcement, no matter what.
I deliberately chose a rambling style in the above paragraph because that is how a vast majority of us use smartphones. Smartphone addiction is now recognized as a serious psychological disorder, especially among the younger generation. While it has helped the millennial generation become smarter and agile, it has brought in a whole host of emotional and adjustment problems, which need to be highlighted and debated in public forums. The recent Malayalam feature film #Home beautifully brings out the key aspects of the digital divide and the toll the compulsive use of smartphones takes on young minds.
#Home is a typical vintage Malayalam movie, rooted to the ground, and a storyline that reflects life as it is. The family of Oliver twist ( Yap, that is the name of a parent wonderfully acted by Indrans) is a loving one. They live in a nice home, are well-off, and leading an apparently peaceful life. Anthony, the eldest son is a film scriptwriter with one good movie under his belt and is in the process of creating one more. His younger brother Charles is the typical Generation Z kid. Oliver Twist and his wife are a generation behind and trying to catch up. Anthony is in a relationship with a wealthy girl, and the conflict between the two forms a good deal of the story. So this is the framework with some nice twists and turns in the drama to make it riveting. But what impressed me about this film is not the development of the story, but its underlying meditation on the use and influence of smartphones and the effect it has on one ability to relate to the real world. Throughout the movie, in almost every frame, one or more of the characters are on their phones, either talking or about to talk, or texting, or taking selfies, or creating videos, or on Facebook Live, or uploading a story. The smartphone is the main protagonist of the film. Anthony’s father, Oliver Twist, Sr, is learning his way in the digital world to keep up with his sons. His travails, confusions, and attempts at handling the mysteries of a smartphone will find resonance in the vast majority of audiences. These problems are real, and not theatrical or exaggerated. For instance, OT Sr innocently asks an acquaintance who is helping him creating a Facebook account this question ” Do we not need any documents to create an account on Facebook?”. It seems laughable at first, but reflect on it for a moment, you will realize how valid the question is. We are about to expose our inner lives and thoughts to a medium, and there are no checks and balances at all. Or in another case, OT Sr tells his younger son ” I am better off going to the Electricity office to pay the bill than do all this on the phone”. Again, true. By automating, we miss out on human interaction which can sometimes be easier and effective. And there is this sequence when we are made to realize the unpleasant fact that nothing gets lost, or can be deleted in the digital world. Once something is put out there, it stays there forever in some form or the other. That is scary. You cannot burn or erase anything. There is no death to digital data. The social platform entices its users to share their innermost thoughts and emotions without warning anyone about the consequences. Well, it is there in fine print, somewhere, but does anyone ever read any of that, anymore.
#Home is a good film to watch with the family. It entertains, gently teaches, and builds a sensitive awareness without sounding too preachy ( it does get preachy sometimes, but that is ok). Brilliant acting and a good clean script ensure that the central theme of the story remains at the forefront. Smartphones and the Digital transformation happening around us are not intrinsically bad or without value. They have great benefits and we do enjoy the fruits of this progress, The art, however, is to learn how to use these tools and when. This education is missing. It is easy to be carried away by the dazzling technical progress, the gadgets, and the apps that come out with unwavering frequency and spend more and more time immersed in it. We deprive ourselves of our humanity if we unconditionally succumb to the lure of technology. It is in our own interest, for our own sanity, that we draw the lines clearly on how we wish to engage with it and to what extent. In this second machine age, this wisdom is sorely required. # Home captures what the effects of such wisdom can look like.
#Home is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
God bless…
yours in mortality,
Bala