Technology: do we possess it or does it possess us?

Recently, I read an article about the wonders of technology. It was a good article, well written. It highlighted how technology has made this world a smaller place, and the near-magical things that could be achieved with their onset. Now, there was little in this article that I could disagree with. It’s true, isn’t it? Technology has done wonders for the developments and achievements of mankind. It has made the journey of progress easier than it has ever been before.

But then, in a way, I couldn’t help wonder if technology really was all that it was cracked up to be. The dependence on it has increased tremendously, with people relying on it blindly – forgetting that man made machine, not the other way round. They forget that machines and other gadgets were invented to make our work EASY, not to DO our work. They forget that whatever machines can do, our brains can do a lot faster. There are people I know, who have forgotten mental math because the use of calculators has been so rampant. Children I know, who cannot even begin to imagine cameras that didn’t show them the photograph instantly. Everybody has become impatient, because technology has let everyone take speed for granted.

Another thing that strikes me about the advance is this: the fact that “getting away” has become so hard for most people. And what shocks me more than anything, is that the whole thing is not even technology’s fault. The thought of just leaving technology behind is unthinkable and unbearable for people. It’s not like the old definition of vacation is tarnished with the onset of phones with internet, which let you work from anywhere anytime and work beckons no matter which corner of the world you are in. I mean, that is the case sometimes. But more often than not, these days people find it near-impossible to just let go. It’s almost like it’s oxygen they’re letting go off, or something equally vital to living and breathing.

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Hobbies and Careers

The dictionary describes a hobby as “an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, typically done during one’s free time.” It is something that people have been doing for many years, over many years. The point of a hobby was mostly to distract from the pressures and stress of work and academics, and to make sure the passion and interest in a particular activity did not get lost somewhere in the pressures and stress.

Nowadays, however, things have evolved quite marvelously. Career options are changing and expanding, incorporating hobbies in ways that have never been imagined. Hobbies and work no longer have to be separate; they can be one and the same thing. It only depends on how you decide to take your hobby to a professional level. There is a growing demand for people in the field of design, and the field of media, ensuring that people don’t have to give up their love and passion to pursue jobs they may or may not enjoy. A hobby can become a source of income, a source that can be enjoyed thoroughly. A source of income that doesn’t feel like work at all, instead feels as breezy and enjoyable as a hobby – because that is what it is. They say when you truly enjoy something, time flies by quicker than you can say fly. Careers have come a long way today with careers like dance, jewelery design, culinary art, etc. Careers that were once considered offbeat are now slowly becoming mainstream.

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"Closing the Loop" by Ashish Kulkarni

It’s almost too easy to communicate these days, isn’t it?

I could email you, if I had your email address. Or perhaps I could SMS you, if I had
your phone number. Send out a tweet that I knew would come on your Twitter stream,
perhaps, or send you a message on Facebook. A fax machine is quickly becoming
redundant, although we have that option still, if we so desire. All this, and of
course, I could still call you on your phone. Your landline, even – assuming you
still have one!

And yet, even with all this paraphernalia available, why is it that companies are so
unwilling to talk to their customers? Why is that practically everybody we speak to
seems dissatisfied with the level of customer service that they get? Just the other
day my neighbour was complaining about a rather reputed consumer electronics
company. It turns out his TV had gone on the blink less within a week of having
bought it.

All calls to the complaint department either went unanswered, or he had to go
through the (literally) life draining process of “press 1 for English, Press 2 for
Hindi”. And at the end of it all, he still hadn’t got a human response, let alone a
solution to his problem?

How difficult would it be for these guys to set up a Twitter account, or even a
Facebook page that could actually talk to their customers? Even if was just to say
something along the lines of “hey, we hear your problem, but we’re sorry – we can’t
solve it right away. But trust us – we’re on it, and somebody will get back to you
ASAP!”

Of course, you don’t want to do that all the time, but it would be an improvement
over banging your head on a brick wall – because at the moment, that’s what it feels
like!

Of course, there are many firms out there that are doing a more than respectable job
of talking to their customers. Quite a few have twitter handles (Cleartrip, for
example), while the head honchos fo some firms are active on Twitter (Anand
Mahindra, for example). But these are the early pioneers, unfortunately – we need
these examples to be the rule rather than the exception.

- Ashish Kulkarni

(Ashish is currently working on his PhD from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. He teaches Economics and Statistics at various colleges in Pune. He runs a boutique consulting firm, BPD Consultants, specializing in data analytics and training.)

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Happiness

It’s in listening to your favorite song; it’s in tiny drops of rain,
Sometimes it’s even present in the right amounts of pain.
It’s reading and rereading your favorite book,
It’s the thing that you feel when the one person you care about gives you the look.
The look that you love and adore,
And the one that you yearn to see a lot more.

It’s in meeting your friends and knowing that someone cares for you,
That someone knows something’s wrong without you having to give them a clue.
It’s in finding money in your pockets when you’re broke beyond belief,
It’s in letting go of rationality and giving your heart a chance to speak.
A chance to say what you truly feel,
A chance for the broken part of you to heal.

It’s in looking out the window and seeing the big round moon,
It’s in babies, rainbows, butterflies and the pleasant weather of June.
It’s in receiving that thing that you really, really wanted,
It’s in finally completing that seemingly impossible task, undaunted.
It’s everything you choose to be,
It’s everywhere you choose to see.

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"Vento: The Talk of the Town" by Ashish Kulkarni

It’s amazing what can be done with technology nowadays. If you pause to think about
it for a minute, you’ll be surprised at how far we’ve come in 2010. Checking mails
on the go, talking (on video, no less!) with friends while traveling on a bus, and
editing documents off your phone – things that would have seemed the stuff of
fantasy a decade ago are now fairly commonplace.
Of course, there’s one teensy-weensy problem with technology being so ubiquitous.
Standing out has now become a real challenge! Everybody has a blog, and everybody
has a twitter account. Everybody gets the new forms of marketing, so what’s a new
product launch to do, hey? Standing out from the crowd is a big challenge nowadays,
and one that not every product or marketing department has come to terms with – or
shows signs of coming to terms with, for that matter. So, to come back to the
original question – how do you stand out?
Well, you could get a newspaper to talk, for starters.
Sounds outlandish? Well, that’s just what Volkswagen did earlier this week with
their new car – the Vento. They went and embedded a tiny pre-recorded message on to
the last page of every copy of the Times of India with a little touch sensor on top.
As soon as the unsuspecting reader unfolded the newspaper, the sensor went off, and
a pre-recorded message played out, extolling the features of the Vento. To get the
newspaper to stop talking , you just had to touch the top of the sensor. And if you
didn’t, well, it would play in endless loop until the battery ran out.
The stunt did what it was supposed to – columns, blogs and tweets abounded, with
anybody and everybody jumping in to praise or castigate the move.
Those in favour couldn’t stop raving about the unique marketing move, and about how
it was sure to get a high recall value with everybody who had seen (heard?) the
advertisement. On the other hand, the detractors were quick to point out that this
was little more than a marketing gimmick, and you needed much more than that to get
a product off the ground.


- Ashish Kulkarni

(Ashish is currently working on his PhD from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics. He teaches Economics and Statistics at various colleges in Pune. He runs a boutique consulting firm, BPD Consultants, specializing in data analytics and training.)

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