Smartphone killed my happiness.

We go into another weekend. I remember few years back how weekend used to be fun. The whole family would load in our Innova and go to some place in Delhi or surrounding area. Four generations. Now its become such a dream. And even if it happens it gets killed by everyone on their smartphone. Chatting with friends and family miles away when the close ones are sitting together. Earlier there were three culprits – me and the boys and now after gifting Dad an iPhone, he is also added to the list.  Because of these smartphone customers also expect me to respond instantly. This means continuously working. I dont remember having survived 2 hours without working.  A survey says an average smartphone user checks his/her device 150 times a day or about once every 6 minutes.

Thanks to the smartphones, Everything is an emergency.  An expectation is created in the society where everything is an emergency.  This is unhealthy and unproductive.  We are losing sleep, becoming dumber. It cant keep on going on like this. We need to unplug. Its funny people use apps to unplug. The simplest is to switch off.  Now a days we have started to have a national day of unplugging which happens in March.

Blaming the smartphone or your employer is easy but its about self. Its about creating boundaries. Everyone has to do it. Trust me your career and life would be much better and happier.

We have to get out of “always on” era.   Stepping away from smartphones, gadgets and web for few hours a day at least will not bring the roof down. Having lived in both generations I can confidently say I was better off, happier in older days. Feel guilty to have made my sons such indoor technology dependent smart “stupids”.

One day a week completely unplugged with family is a target I have in front of me.