tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53407495591914183392024-02-20T00:21:07.788-08:00Random Thoughts of a Constrained MindPrabalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03703772124348402439noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5340749559191418339.post-87647096758346588692013-06-09T07:02:00.000-07:002013-06-09T07:02:15.723-07:00Smartphones! Smart choice?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few days back I was having a
casual post lunch talk with a group of friends, when one of the guys took out
his new smart phone and immediately another person extended his hand in with
heightened enthusiasm to check it out. And I did the unthinkable mistake at
that time of giving a sigh and passing a negative comment on Smart phones. It
was indeed not a smart thing to do. For what followed for the next fifteen
minutes was a war of words between the smart phone lovers and me; the smart
phone lovers being almost everybody else in the group. To be frank what I was
doing was actually trying to defend my statement without any logical backing to
it, while the rest actually had me by my neck and were shooting away the
usefulness of smart phones one after the other. A few of which I still remember
and they were something like this.</div>
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<ol>
<li>If one is
driving in the night and does not know the way to where one is headed to, then by
using a smart phone one can navigate and find his way immediately.</li>
<li>As traffic
information can be found out beforehand and it can be used to choose the best route
anytime.</li>
<li>One can send
messages for free anytime.</li>
<li>One can stay
in touch with his friends all the time (facebook, twitter, Gtalk etc).</li>
<li>One can
contact anybody anytime.</li>
<li>One can read
any book that is stored in the smart phone anytime.</li>
<li>One can take
pictures anytime.</li>
<li>One can watch
a movie or listen to songs anytime.</li>
<li>One can play video
games anytime.</li>
<li>One can search
the internet anytime and can get whatever information one wants.</li>
</ol>
<br />
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Well there were some more such
things, but I would not put that here, because they were not specific to smart
phones. For example someone said that she could find her friends with whom she
had lost touch with through facebook. This example is more suited for
usefulness of facebook than usefulness of smartphones.</div>
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And I have to admit that these
examples are actually valid and do prove the usefulness of smartphones. There
are of course many more ways in which the smart phone comes handy. For example
when a lot of office work could get done before reaching office itself on the
go. And hence smartphones are amazing. But nothing comes at a cost; the more
amazing an experience is the costs for it also are higher. So what is that we
fail to see about this amazing piece of gadget?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">What are the costs ??</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The snowballing effect of Instant
gratification</span></div>
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What caught my attention later
was the usage of words like immediately, anytime, without waiting in almost
every usage that was mentioned about smartphones. This gadget indeed is a tool
of instant gratification. The culture of instant gratification has made people
very impatient and smartphone is the pinnacle of this culture.</div>
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Patience is a virtue as they say
and it gives strength and character to a person. It is most needed in dealing
with problems, tough situations, learning new things and above all in
relationships. Impatience helps in moving things faster. It has its own place
and context. But while it takes a lot of discipline, practice, hard work and
character to develop a little patience it takes only a smartphone and such
other things to reach the summit of impatience.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A false sense of knowledge</span></div>
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Two basic questions that come to
my mind is that does having all information always at your finger tips really
translate to knowledge? And secondly is all information really available?</div>
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Information when internalized and
experienced becomes knowledge. But when the information is available so quickly
people shy away from internalizing it, let alone experience it. So while people
may find information in no time using their smart phones, I suspect knowledge
will be a difficult thing to find in future.</div>
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And coming to my second question,
can everything we experience be translated into information. Can the
information be available ever be complete and objective? With internet becoming
a highly competitive space for keyword based content creation what information
we get is not merely what we are looking for, but what has been cleverly
designed and created for us to find. And then if one has to experience fresh
air and sun shine then one has to go out and experience it. This experience can
not really be translated to information. Or can it be! I wonder because I have
seen some people searching for ‘fresh air and sun shine’ on google. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Exposure to advertisement</span></div>
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It does not really take more than
an ant’s brain to understand how advertising affects the society. By targeted
conditioning and false trendsetting advertisements are aimed at increasing
consumerism. And more such advertisements are aimed at the young people who are
always looking for validation and acceptance. Because of ad conditioning and
trendsetting, judgments are made on what kind of clothes people wear, what phone
or car they have and not on who we really are. This leads to a certain degree
of social discrimination and emotional insecurity, especially in younger
population.</div>
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People who use smartphones are an
easy target for advertisers. And this advertising is not random at all.
Information is constantly collected from the phone about the person which are
used in targeted advertising. So it is much easier to fall prey to such
advertising as they are directed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Addiction</span></div>
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If one searches for smart phone
addiction on the internet the results one gets is almost scary. More students
in developed countries are addicted to their smart phones than even alcohol or
drugs. The anxiety levels of such people shoots up when the battery is running
low or a new application can not be updated. I suggest you do your own
searching to find out more facts on this.</div>
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Short attention span</div>
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People are always doing so many
things in parallel on their smartphones. This practice does have a negative
effect on the attention span as people are not really focusing on one thing at
a time. As people get used to doing (or at least believing so though it may not
be actually happening) many things in parallel attention is always divided and
it becomes difficult then to focus, thus resulting in short attention span.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Health issues</span></div>
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For people who have not reached
puberty, concentrating on smart phones and playing games in that could cause
imbalance in brain development. In youth the left brain develops first followed
by right brain. Smartphones accelerate the growth of left brain and hinder the
development of right brain, thus causing imbalance.</div>
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Also due to overuse of
smartphones cases the stress and posture related problems are also going up.
Eyes, ears, neck, spine, fingers can be damaged irreparably because of overuse
of smart phones. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Workplace in future</span></div>
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As smart phones become more
common their usage will go up to do official work. I am afraid it will reach a
point where it will be an expectation for people to deal with office work
outside office using their smart phones. Those who will not do will be left
behind by those who comply to it. The targets of companies will become even
more unrealistic causing even more stress. The laptop and VPN has already
infringed upon social and family life of people to a great extent. Whatever is
remaining will be finished by smartphones. And by the way nobody gets paid
extra now for doing work from home outside office hours. So I don’t think
people will be paid extra when using smartphone for work becomes an unwritten
rule.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Homes in future</span></div>
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Because of television and
computers already the world is witnessing a decline in family conversations.
Imagine what it will be with smartphones in future. In fact its already
happening. Children are on their phones chatting to friends or watching a video
someone forwarded. The father is busy answering some business mails on his smartphone,
while mom is watching her favourite soap on her smartphone while preparing
dinner. For me this situation does not look very healthy.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Smatphones are highly loaded
gadgets with some cool features, which are very useful. But there are some
costs an individual and the society has to bear for this gadget. And it
ultimately comes down to choice, which is guided by what we value in our lives.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>p.s. Some of the material here
has been directly/indirectly borrowed from various sources in the internet. I
have been able to put two sources here. I could not locate the other sources as
I had been through them long time back.</i></div>
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<a href="http://www.dgupost.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1269"><i>http://www.dgupost.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1269</i></a></div>
<br />
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<a href="http://smartphoneconvenienceorobsession.blogspot.in/"><i>http://smartphoneconvenienceorobsession.blogspot.in/</i></a></div>
</div>
Prabalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03703772124348402439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5340749559191418339.post-65235242334440839052011-05-24T05:04:00.000-07:002011-05-24T10:04:15.275-07:00Painting on Sale<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSgGZjU7L1QYQ5wobU9b_7CameyeamG8ZQ_a6_55nn2fXydNC-oCcYGsJBC0BVlY8t0RoIdKxfOoTCFIgJfYAlfbvHBrpJNk1ia1U_qK0aVh8A6bSeG3kTnUmHbANSSUO9DtEYQYMOZoc/s1600/Poster.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 379px; height: 235px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSgGZjU7L1QYQ5wobU9b_7CameyeamG8ZQ_a6_55nn2fXydNC-oCcYGsJBC0BVlY8t0RoIdKxfOoTCFIgJfYAlfbvHBrpJNk1ia1U_qK0aVh8A6bSeG3kTnUmHbANSSUO9DtEYQYMOZoc/s1600/Poster.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">I have an announcement to make. For the next few months I will be selling some of my paintings. I have created an online gallery in flickr and put all information there. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/51743818@N02/sets/72157626164915862/">Please click here to go to the gallery</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/51743818@N02/sets/72157626164915862/">. </a></div><br /><div align="justify">The details (price and size) of the painting are given in the link. The size of the painting specified is actual size of the painting. It will be matted and framed with backing board and glass. The matt size will be 2.5 to 3 inch on all four sides.</div><br /><div align="justify">All paintings are original paintings. So there is no second one available. However reprints area available at a lower price. </div><br /><div align="justify">You can check out my artist's profile from the link below. Please drop me a mail at <a href="mailto:prabal.mallick@gmail.com">prabal.mallick@gmail.com</a> if you like a painting and want to have it. My complete contact information is also available below.</div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://micheal-learns-to-paint.blogspot.com/p/profile.html">Please click here to check my artist profile.</a> </div><br /><div align="justify"><a href="http://micheal-learns-to-paint.blogspot.com/p/contact.html">Please click here for complete contact information.</a> </div><br /><div align="justify">Thanks for your time.</div>Prabalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03703772124348402439noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5340749559191418339.post-44259804552420222902009-08-13T22:44:00.000-07:002009-08-14T01:48:33.869-07:00Clue to the flu<b>An excerpt from the hearing of a case in supreme court of the heavens</b><br />_________________________________________________<br />Public prosecutor - A lot of humans are dying and a lot more are expected to die because of this. Can you please justify your actions regarding this?<br /><br />Nature - My Lord, humans have gone out of control. They are exploiting rest of the design for their own greed and in the process destroying the fine balance that I have to maintain all the time. They are digging holes, burning my invigorating juices, cutting trees, burning them, choking me, throwing their wastes everywhere, multiplying at an alarming rate, making other species extinct. My Lord, they are taking your creation towards complete destruction.<br /><br />Public prosecutor - Yes yes, we have heard that before. But you have been retaliating in other ways like floods, cyclones, earthquakes etc. But why swine flu? Why hit below the belt?<br /><br />Nature - My Lord, all those have always just been more of a caution message to humans. But the humans have not understood. And moreover innocent animals and birds also have been dying in these messages. But this time its not a message. Its a cleanup job. I plan to clean up a good percentage of humans from the surface of earth.<br /><br />Public prosecutor - But that will be too large a number.<br /><br />Nature - It may seem so for now. But my Lord would know the design he has created better than any of us. The humans would use their intelligence and find a way out of this soon. So it may not be a very large number as we may find out later. But yes our aim is to clean up as many as possible.<br /><br />Public prosecutor - But you can not run on assumptions like....<br /><br />God as the judge - I am sorry for interrupting, but it looks like the situation on earth has gone out of control. Such actions like swine flu also may not be enough. Would you consider a complete annihilation madam, if I may say so?Prabalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03703772124348402439noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5340749559191418339.post-42071807501729299482009-06-04T23:47:00.000-07:002009-08-14T01:49:26.618-07:00Mousetrap of the stateHave you ever thought why the traffic problem in India just keeps increasing? Why proper facilities are not created for even the most basic requirement? Why information is kept away from the public? Even a simple wrong way sign on the road is hidden away so that the normal human being's eye sight cannot detect it? Why trains are almost always late? They are not just one off cases, but all these deficiencies in the system are working hand in hand to create a mousetrap of the state. This one incident will throw some light.<br />It was Tuesday morning and I was taking my parents to the railway station to see them off as they were travelling back home. The station is less than 10 kms from my flat and we started one hour before the departure time of the train. It was 8:30 in the morning and hence the traffic was not much, but only till about 200 mts before from the station. I noticed that the roads have been designed in such way that no matter what time of the day and no matter how many vehicles are on the road there's ought to be a traffic jam there. So it took about 20 mins to cross that distance of 200 mts and we reached station at 8:50 which was the departure time of the train. It was the first door of the trap. We rushed to the platform. I went to buy platform tickets and find out the platform number of the train. But it was a small station and I just could get no information about the platform and the line in the ticket counter was so long that if I bought a platform ticket then obviously I would miss the train. The second door of the trap of course. So we took a guess and rushed to the platform which was crowded. The train was as usual late, though by only 10 mins, because it was the first stoppage of the train. Anyways the train came and I helped my parents get inside their coach and said bye and started walking back.<br />And there waiting for me there was the final door of the trap.<br />We all are used to buy tickets, show them at the entrance of whatever we are entering and then get inside. Say for watching a movies, rock show or getting inside an airport. Sometimes the ticket is actually given at the entrance. Totally fair and logical. But ever wondered why such a system is not present in railway stations. I did not think much of it till that day. In railway stations your tickets are checked when you are coming out of the ticket use area (the platform). And no points for guessing who completes the mousetrap.<br />Had to pay up Rs 270/- for each person as fine for a mere Rs 3/- platform ticket.<br />Like me so many people fall into the mousetrap everyday and what could have been just Rs 3/- as government revenue it becomes Rs 270/-. And when so many people pay this and many more fines like this (India being the second largest country in terms of population) imagine what the state earns from the mousetrap. And once again the everyman is at the receiving end as usual.Prabalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03703772124348402439noreply@blogger.com1