In this present time of social networking via the world wide web, one can notice a similar phenomenon. In an increasingly globalizing society whose limiting boundaries have become more generalized, we the members see an ever accelerating process of disappearance of certain socio-economic attributes specific to communities, cultures, religions, and nations, those which were so significant in giving shape to, in defining and in qualifying the platforms of similar interactions even a decade back. Or may I say, it is disappearance of their relevance.
People interact with people at every level of the virtual world, where the tempero-spatial dimensions of the real world (in real time-space) have got immensely compressed, with considerably easier and faster access. Horizons, far away yesterday have come closer (in a way I still can't accept this, the sense of awe & wonder & the mystery of what lies beyond that used to give me goose bumps. Certain things are best kept unanswered though the status quo doesn't provide food & shelter for you in a world where the demands to survive are becoming more & more).
This has become an existential need for us to maintain and catch up with relationships of varying proximities and conduct our social lives (if one must choose to, of course), as we rush desperately through the rush-hours of a day in modern times.
Since the platform of communication has become globalized with compressed time-space, thus accommodating more and more people from all possible points across demographic spectrums, most interactions tend to change from an initial personal and singular process to group-interactions where multiple people make contact and share. One, more often than not, notices "cluster reactions" (if I may call them so) to a singular action. If one goes into a mode of reminiscence by a publicly shared comment, or a photograph or audio-visual virtual link, the entire group tends to move towards the same mode of reminiscence -- something which provides sensory and emotional gratification to be felt and enjoyed by all of us. This creates a transient "bond" within the group members, that has the elements of Trust across demographic boundaries, where beliefs around moral issues, artistic tastes, philosophical perceptions etc, get reaffirmed and reconfirmed. We experience mutually reciprocative appreciation of thoughts and actions, and we perform fraternising acts, the positive essence of which contributes healthily to our society in real space-time.
Sometime back when I posted, in Facebook, the YouTube link to a Hindi movie song which was quite a hit song in 1975, many friends (real and virtual) posted comments below the link. There was something common in all of them. It was Honest Appreciation with an underlying sentiment of tenderness. It showed that no matter how fast time has flown by since the 70s, with an incredible number of rapid changes in our personal and social lives (mainly due to technological advancements), people still like to go back to their past to revisit the simpler life they led and relive its moments that were there three or four decades back.
As I wandered to my past, to my early school-days when a particular song used to play on our newly bought stereophonic radio inclusive of an integrated cassette player and recorder, on Sunday afternoons, just after the Bournvita Quiz Contest. Those 2 hours of lazy Sunday afternoons belonged to me, and the melodies used to carry me into a magical place, a kingdom of which I was the self-asserted, undisputed king. My childhood heroes, from the sports and the film worlds, lived there too and I used to indulge in regal interactions of grandeur with my heroes, on sports arenas or rugged terrains of Texas where cowboys and Indians battled frequently.
Life was, in a way, simpler and less complicated then particularly inside a two-room flat plainly furnished, with the radio consciously placed in a position, from where it seemed to add a touch of glamour, that which emanates from a "gadget" representing the latest technological import in the middle-class market, to an otherwise assorted set of inexpensive furniture with cheap upholstery filling up the sitting room. I remember my mother religiously dusting the prized radio to maintain the metallic shine, which perhaps produced in the mind of the lady, an illusion of social upgradation of the status that the rented middle-class flat sported otherwise. I found it a bit odd, wondering about the necessity, relevance and significance of such an exercise but I remember cautiously guarding my secret thought from undesirable public exposure in an unmindful moment of folly.
I used to love the music that came out of The Radio, and cherish it again and again in my private kingdom. While I look back at these nostalgic moments frozen in time to eternity, I still find many things on the social front odd enough but now I can analyse the possible causes behind such oddities. And I also find that the music of those days has essentially stuck to my core which makes me marvel rather pompously over the music of the 70s, brilliant in melody and its mood of fearless expression, something which heralded the sweeping sociological change that characterized the 70th decade of the previous millenium.
In the virtual society, all of us here take part in such exercises of reminiscence, both individually as well as cluster exercises in groups, depending on what the causative stimulus is, and all of us express and share our experiences while reminiscing moments of a romanticized past. It feels so wonderful to be a part of it, where honesty, lack of inhibition, and frankness in their purest forms ornament the comments and personal accounts we share, especially taking into account the marked individualisation of social entities and fiercely guided privacies, each to his/her own, which modern times have impressed upon us, almost by force. Even the nearest neighbour happens to be a stranger.
But of course, every generation has, and shall continue to romance its own golden decades where everything attains near-perfection, rich in novelties that ushered in new socio-cultural changes. Perhaps every past generation would do the same if they had a virtual society during their times.
Most of us here have progressed ahead in life to a superior socio-financial status from what used to be during the decades whose memories we reminisce and cherish. This is a natural social process -- any society which progresses to survive the destructive complexities of Time shall definitely flourish, in culture, finance and technology, and perhaps towards an order which offers more freedom and equality in the human pace. A society that survives, tends to take up a mantle of a superior "humane" philosophy. Yet when I look at the reactions posted here in Facebook when we remember old days and share the fond memories, I find the honesty and frankness behind the reactions, so heart-touching.
Of course that's the way we should be. But sometimes one's honesty and simplicity gets distorted into hypocrisy and conceit under the effect of "filthy lucre" (that is how D.H Lawrence qualifies Money and Wealth in his short story-The Rocking Horse Winner). We have all heard our elders commenting on how 'snob' one has become with prospering wealth, and we, ourselves, have "bitched" (I apologize for writing this word, I am just to be frank myself)about somebody's newly upturned nose, criticising and resenting the audaciously glaring "change" of somebody's behaviour and social exercises. The "upstarts" going ahead to become "snobs" is a social truth too, and constitute the unhealthy aspects of our society.
There is a reason why I keep harping on mushy memories, the simpler quality of the life that was, and my apparent over-fondness for the honesty of interaction and sharing of the globalized generations, which are essentially normal, natural processes. In social networking sites, conceit and hypocrisy are hard to find while the real-time society in which we live, has taken up such a rapid rate of acceleration that the terms honesty and hypocrisy, frankness and conceit hardly matter, grossly irrelevant as people don't have the time to ponder over such issues with seriousness. It's a break from the conscious guard I maintain during interactions with my immediate surroundings and the people it involves.
This social behavioural pattern -- how we cope up with the increasing stress that comes as a collateral package with the demand of the sheer pace of the real life we live everyday, frantically climbing our 'ladders', and still find each other wishing well, agreeing on the "good" things and express lavishly, our mutual appreciation-has perhaps got very little sociological significance. But it is a happy feeling to ponder over it.
For the middle-class (I keep on commenting upon this middle class because firstly I come from such a socio-economic background,and secondly, I think social changes are best appreciated and qualified from perspective of and the eyes of the middle-class section, urban or rural.) One need not be an expert in history or socio-anthropology to conclude that social and sociological changes, irrespective of time,space, history and geography, take place only when the middle-class appreciates and approves of the causal factors behind the changes, thus giving them a go-ahead. Dictatorial regimes in post-rennaisscence human history have not witnessed any marked social evolution no matter how authoritative or populist those regimes might have been.
In the past one decade, the middle-class have changed in essence because informational and technological advancements have caused a palpable 'urbanization' of the rural population. We do have a big responsibility and carry it out quite well (it is becoming better by the day via virtual socialization). It is not easy for a community as a whole made up of heterogeneous elements to witness the changes, accept them and finally adapt to them, particularly in such a short span. Yet we have done so, and human interactions in popular, responsible networking sites bear testimony to this fact and that it is becoming better with time. We have seen radical changes, and we appreciate it better, because we value all that which used to be and all that which are.
I see a bright future in spite of political and ideological differences that become prominent when nations interact on political platforms, claiming to represent respective national identities. I can claim with pride that it is us, the international community globalised through the world wide web, who represent the actual identity of modern day humanism, right from individual to national levels. And the cluster reactions which open closed hearts as well as closed borders, show us that we can dare to imagine John Lennon's world and work towards realizing the dream.
Dr.Anirban Chaudhuri,
Consultant Physician,
Mumbai, India.
Blog: ANIRBANSPEAK
http://anirbanspeak.blogspot.com
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"Whatever I did, I did it my way.."
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