Internet of Things
November 2023
The Internet of Things
The internet can be a double-edged
sword. So learn to use it with wisdom
or else it will consume your life, says
Sujatha Rao
“Both my kids have their heads
perpetually buried in their phones.
The only family conversations we have
are on our WhatsApp family group.”
“My son has started falling behind in his
academics. With some of the classes and
assignments shifted to the online platform,
I simply don’t know what he is doing on his
devices all the time.”
“Since the time she hit puberty, my
daughter is constantly stressed out.
She feels she is not pretty enough. Her
insecurity is making her spend a lot of time
on Instagram, hankering after likes for her
photos.”
46 LifePositive | NOVEMBER 2023
Hearing these refrains from my friends and relatives from the younger generation, I have been feeling lucky to have raised my child before the advent of mobile phones. I empathised with these young parents, often joining the bandwagon of thrashing the so-called ‘mobile generation’ and their addiction to the internet.
And then I read Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari, where he talks about how the world expected people to be living in space colonies on Mars and Pluto by the end of the century against the backdrop of Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” in 1969, but nobody foresaw the coming of the internet.
This realisation jolted me like nothing else did in recent times, and it set me thinking. Even if mankind had managed to inhabit space as expected, it would have been accessible only to the lucky few, whereas the internet is made accessible and affordable to almost everyone
today irrespective of financial, geographical, racial, or cultural differences.
Then images of those much-hated long queues in front of movie theatres, railway counters, or almost any counter for that matter, flashed in front of me, unleashing the following thoughts:
• Am I not thrilled about being able to carry out everything from the cosy comfort of my home at the click of a button or a key on the keyboard thanks to the internet?
• Did I not wonder about how many trees digitalisation has saved? Am I not feeling extremely happy about being able to carry a whole library in my handbag thanks to my e-reader?
• After a career spanning decades in finance, have I not been feeling that it’s nothing short of a miracle to be carrying a universal bank in my mobile phone enabling me to purchase anything and everything without having to step out of the house during a raging pandemic, especially when I am into my senior citizen years?
The internet has virtually brought the whole world within one’s grasp
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One of the happiest groups using the free WhatsApp messages and calls happens to be that of the senior citizens who, having so much time on their hands in their post-retirement days, are busy texting and forwarding messages, photos, and videos.
• Is it not wonderful to think about the future generation not having to waste time on menial jobs, thanks to the innovations in the artificial intelligence field?
Aren’t all the above things nothing short of miracles being enjoyed by the rich and the poor alike, just like the natural wonders of the world, thanks to the very thing that we find so offensive when the young generation obsessively hangs onto certain media hosted on it?
Let’s now learn a bit about the history of the internet and how it came to weave itself into the fabric of our day-to-day lives so inseparably.
The origins
Though January 1, 1983, is considered the official birthday of the internet as there was no uniform and standard way of communication prior to this, it was way back in the nineteen sixties that the internet started between government researchers as a way to communicate amongst themselves. Right from the beginning, it was based on the premise of international collaboration, primarily between the USA, the UK, and France.
48 LifePositive | NOVEMBER 2023
The omnipresence
From the monstrous-sized mainframes to the pocket-sized mobile phones, and from the serpentine cables in the lab to the Wi-Fi, the internet has come a long way in making itself almost invisible while simultaneously being omnipresent.
Soon, landlines may join the long list of items such as clocks, calculators, calendars, alarms, timers, etc. that have been wiped out by the proliferating mobile phones. The present generation may not be able to comprehend how to operate those dial phones that existed at the beginning of the 20th century.
The generation that depended on ‘PP (Private Party) Trunk Calls’ is far beyond these people’s imagination. For all the nostalgia that these things bring to the people of that generation, for Generation Z (people born between 1997 and 2012), they might as well have belonged to the stone age. If they generate any kind of feeling in them, sadly, it’s that of genuinely felt pity because life without Wi-Fi for most of them is unimaginable.
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However, it’s not just Gen Z that has lapped up the opportunities opening up with the ubiquitous internet. There are so many YouTube channels out there showcasing the talents of the baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964). One of the happiest groups using the free WhatsApp messages and calls happens to be that of the senior citizens who, having so much time on their hands in their post-retirement days, are busy texting and forwarding messages, photos, and videos.
The other view
It struck me that how we use the internet is up to us human beings. Today, if we are reeling under the side effects of overeating sugary products and drinking sweetened beverages, the problem is not with sugar. The problem lies with us.
Similarly, we cannot want to have the internet for free and enjoy its multifaceted benefits and, at the same time, crib about how it is running our lives by getting addicted to some facets of it. Like most of the lifestyle issues that we have created for ourselves of late, the solution for
this menace too lies within ourselves.
The following tips are aimed at helping us overcome some of the challenges faced in this regard:
• Setting limits
Since the day Reema decided to set ‘device time’ for herself and her two children in their pre-teens, she feels life has become much more manageable. Despite her children’s acrimonious attitude towards it at times, she is breathing easy as they finish their homework on time (well, almost) and are engaging themselves in some sort of physical activity. She has also blocked certain risky sites permanently from her children’s devices and has been putting in efforts to monitor their online presence.
These days, even our mobile phones send us reports with data on what we have been browsing and how much time we have been spending on it, enabling us to aim at setting targets for ourselves. As the cliché goes, “What can be measured can be managed.”
Setting device time for internet browsing helps a family not lose out on interpersonal bonding
• Turning off notifications
When David gets into project mode, he turns off all the notifications on his devices and focusses on the task at hand without distractions. Project or not, it pays to turn off notifications on all our devices, as we can always check them later on.
The latest research shows that the human hormone dopamine causes ‘seeking’ behaviour, not just connected to physical needs but also to abstract concepts. With social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., we now have instant gratification from the dopamine-induced loop of seeking and getting rewarded. To get out of this loop, we need to turn off the notifications or cues.
• Rewarding ourselves
Seema allows screen time to her schoolgoing daughter as a reward when she completes an assigned task. She says this has been really working well for her family so far.
This can work wonders even for adults like us who can relax with well-earned browsing time after we complete some of those rigorous tasks so that we feel motivated to complete such not
so-welcome tasks. We can take the help of other family members or friends so that it works out even better.
• Limiting the number of apps
When people plan to reduce weight, they make it a point not to bring junk food home. Some people also arrange salads and other healthy food options within sight in their refrigerators while the unhealthy options are kept far out of reach. Extending similar logic, we should limit the number of apps on our phone screens. We are well off with the entertainment apps out of our easy reach so that our precious time is first spent on time-sensitive activities that are important to us.
Conclusion
Nuclear energy can be used to light the world or send it into an apocalypse of mass destruction. Similarly, how we use the power of the internet is up to us. We can make technology work for us by being mindful of its impact on us.
We can choose to light up our lives or fall prey to the dark webs that lie underneath its surface. At the same time, we should be wary of the fact that it is the responsibility of us adults to protect the children by nudging them towards safe practices.
As Gretchen Rubin said, “Technology is a good servant but a bad master.”
Let’s not forget that we are the masters.
Sujatha Rao is a retired banker. She has been contributing articles to various newspapers and magazines over the last two decades. Two of her short stories were placed third in Times of India’s national level Write India contest (Seasons 1 and 2). Her first book titled In the Company of Sto ries was published recently. Her other interests include reading, traveling, practising yoga, and mindfulness.