Are Changes Making Our Life, Better or Bitter

We are living in an exciting period of time, where we come across so many changes in our day to day life. We are experiencing things that people have never experienced before. For instance, three great inventions have drastically changed the way of life. Computer, Internet, and Mobile Phone. Well, with every invention coming in there is always a debate whether it is a boon or curse. But not withholding our opinions, inventions continue to happen. Medical research has advanced to such great high levels, that scientist are finding ways to modify your genetic patterns.

 

For thousands of years, humans have walked around in an environment that was different from the one we move around in today. I read a nice quote which said, “In those days, people did not have watches, but they had time. But today, everyone has watches but no one has the time.” It is an irony. Our ancestors spent their time in a world that was outdoor-oriented, where the family was the focus, where survival was tied to hands-on work, and where not much changed. Advances in technology and changes in their way of life occurred, but when they did, the change was slow and gradual. People had time to adapt.

 

Today, advances in technology are occurring at a rate that we have never experienced before. Within the time span of just one decade or less, an entire way of life can be shaped and altered. Just about when you seem to get familiar with a gadget, a new gadget comes. Look at the way the mobile phones have evolved. From the size of a brick to something that is invisible outside your palms.

 

In the beginning of the 1990s, the average household had only one telephone and no experience with computers. When something broke, it was possible to fix most items with your own hands. Now, just one decade later, people find it strange if you can't be reached at most hours and locations on your cell phone if you don't have e-mail and Internet access, and if your business doesn't have a web page. Since computers are now being incorporated into many items, when something breaks we can only get out the phone book to call the technical guy; we are no longer capable of fixing things with our own hands. These changes represent not only changes in our technology but also changes in the amount of control we feel over our own lives. It is exciting that our style of life changes so quickly, but at the same time, it also makes us feel somewhat lost and disoriented. Though there has been an increase in comfort and convenience, people are feeling less happy and less satisfied than they were a decade before.

To win the battle against unhappiness, we need to be alert to the patterns in how we approach our interactions, people, our environment, and our everyday activities. This alertness and awareness in life is the most reliable tool we can use in the pursuit of happiness.

 

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com