Rediscovering analog living in a digital age

They were the best days of my life. We did not have smartphones or fancy gadgets. Simple things such as a tennis ball or marbles were enough to keep us enthralled the entire day. Screen glued kids of today are just a shadow of what we were. They may never know the glee of playing in grime and dirt under the scorching sun, the ecstasy of splashing about in puddles of fresh rainwater, the rapture of puttering in the backyard, the thrill of hopping over walls to steal mangoes on the way back from school, the amusement of endless pranks at school, the exhilaration of punching and clobbering up the winning cricket team after a loss, the euphoria of clandestinely lighting up a cigarette, the agony of suffering bruises while playing it rough, the misery of being ambushed and thrashed by the rival gang and the charm and allure of playing hide and seek under the moonlight. 

Shortly after that, after I grew up to be a junior college student in Hyderabad, I went backpacking for two months in the hilly terrains of the Himalayas on a shoestring budget. I could travel that far by myself as my father was an officer in the Railways. That entitled me to a free first-class train pass as a family member. For those two months, none of my friends or family knew where I was, nor did they have any idea whether I was living or dead. I might have dialled my parents a couple of times to let them know I was well whenever I reached a town having an STD booth. Long-distance calls were prohibitively expensive, so my conversations never lingered more than a couple of minutes. I frequently mailed letters that reached my parents a week later. There were no cell phones, no email, no texting, no digital photography. I hauled money as cash, which I stashed away in my underwear from the reach of pick-pocketers. I toted a Minolta camera which took photographs on a film, 36 frames per film, which we could develop only at a studio. 

No kid today will ever have that experience. Anybody travelling today would be texting, emailing, posting on Facebook and tweeting every moment. The perception of being in a new place is not there today. Once I got on the train, there was no way to contact the world I had left behind. In short, cell phones and modern technology have taken away the feeling of isolation and have made us perpetually available. 

Come to think; today we have learnt to manipulate and forge earth’s elements of God to manufacture computers and phones. But any gift of God could eventually become a curse if we become profoundly entrenched and attached to it and are incapable of detaching ourselves. Creating and living in a digital scenario in which we have total control over every probable outcome, contrary to an unpredictable, dangerous and chaotic life in nature, is akin to playing God or, worse, becoming God itself. Therefore, we must know how to unfasten from digital and embrace analog because, with every impulsive embrace of new technology, we could give rise to dystopian consequences. 

For instance, in the movie Matrix made in 1999 starring Keanu Reeves, a war erupts in the early 21st century between humans and intelligent machines, in which humanity loses the battle. Following that, they apprehend all surviving humans and restrain them in a ‘matrix’ — a shared alternative reality constructed to imitate the world as it existed in 1999. Where the survivors could live the rest of their lives, happily plugged into the matrix blissfully unaware that they are floating naked in a human glass pod with IV vitamins and calories to sustain their brains and bodies in what is purely digital existence. We see a narrative of such dystopian futures in several films, such as Blade Runner 2049 and Minority Report. We are today not far behind these films. Shortly, we would have humans living digitally and virtually if we persist in alienating ourselves from nature and lead a technology-imbued, analog-obsolete existence. 

Under such existence, our future digital food could seem like an asymmetrical fancy-looking chunk of a customised, highly engineered protein, fat, and carbohydrates. This nutriment will not only match a person’s precise biological requirements but, when paired with VR goggles and a haptic headset, would enable one to experience all the joys of happily chowing down a Thalapakatti biryani with a bottle of chilled coke. As far as spirituality is concerned, we may not have to meditate like Buddhist monks in a monastery to attain enlightenment and bliss in the future digital world. We would experience enlightenment by merely strapping on Oculus Rift with software like Tripp to create an indescribable spiritual experience. For carnal pleasures, love dolls or sex robot dolls would be capable of lending a man or woman all the sensual gratification they might derive from coitus with an actual, attractive human being. 

If we let ourselves go so deep into such digital territory, we will have to give up part of us that makes us human. Analog experiences engage our senses and connect us to people, unlike digital, which disconnects and isolates us. People who have embraced the analog world are practising digital decluttering and deleting Facebook accounts. Such a yearning to return to analog divulges our craving to reconnect with humanity. 

So, digital technology may lead us away from savouring God’s creation by drowning us in a fake world. Still, if I had to choose between the two worlds, I would not discard the digital but continue to embrace the analog while responsibly and minimally utilising the digital. 

Thus, at times, even when the erratic and turbulent analog world feels way better than the farce digital world, I would still need the digital space to write blogs on my website (www.jayanthmurali.com), shop online and do myriad other things. And during times when it becomes imperative to reach out to a maximum number of people in the quickest time, digital technology may be the best to rely on. For instance, we at the Tamil Nadu Armed Police, aiming to ameliorate the suffering of the people during the ongoing pandemic, recently launched a website www.letsfightcorona.com through which we can render a bouquet of humanitarian services, some on our own and the rest by enrolling the services of virtual volunteers, NGOs etc. Therefore, despite leading an amazing analog life, I continue to use the digital conveniences responsibly while celebrating the best of both worlds. 

— The author is ADGP, Armed Police