Since the beginning of the pandemic till date, the time period marked by lockdowns and the blazing fire of COVID, it seems that the world has shifted online. It isn’t that before the pandemic people didn’t possess mobile phones or didn’t have accounts on social networking websites, but now the times are different in the sense that our interaction with technology has increased manifold. Earlier ‘Mobile Phones: a boon or a bane’ used to be a debate competition topic for students but now this subject is no longer debatable; mobiles are, in these COVID days, a necessity. Technology seems to have made its way in almost all of our daily activities and the most visible face of technology are mobile phones-accessible & portable. School classrooms and office meeting rooms now function with our cameras on while we keep playing the ‘mute-unmute game’. Earlier while there used to be a rush to hail a cab or catch the school bus to be in time, now an internet lag is just enough to cause a disruption. Technology has always guaranteed our connectivity with the outside world but while venturing into the amazing world of internet, we seem to have confined ourselves to the comfort of our rooms. Parallelly, we get so engaged that the clock keeps ticking and we lose control of our time. That is when this technology starts taking a toll on our health and becomes hazardous. What we ought to do is maintain a balance between the virtual and the real world. Technology available at our disposal and phones always in our pockets doesn’t mean that they are meant to be used all the time. Rather perceive the case this way that they are always present to be used by us; they are supposed to serve us and thus we should take charge of them and become their masters. Using technology the right way will definitely add to our knowledge, save time and turn us into more proactive versions of ourselves. No matter what the pros and cons of technology and mobile phones be, it is undeniable that the pandemic has left a deep impact on our virtual selves, an effect so massive that its impressions would always remain in the times to come.
