As we took off to our favourite destination–Goa, my mind was in conflict as it was my first air travel experience since February 2020 (when the pandemic first hit India’s shores).
My body had been through a rough patch and there was always the fear of the pandemic, which saw a few number of cases during this period compared to earlier this month.
But, the sun-soaked beaches and gentle sound of the waves compelled me to pause and count the good things life had to offer.
However, what I was not prepared for was that it had been two years since I went on a holiday, and the world around me had undergone drastic changes. Or, maybe, I was disconnected for too long.
In Goa, I witnessed an alarming number of young, seemingly well-off and educated people, who were completely addicted to their phones–specifically to the video creation medium. It almost looked like nobody paused to see the world around them.
A Solitary Holiday With One’s Phone
They didn’t want to hear the melancholy of the sea waves; or to try and guess the song that was playing in the shack they were seated at.
Nobody seemed to observe the kaleidoscope of colours the sky was drenched in during the wee hours of a sunrise, or when the sun was setting in the evenings. They ignored the sand that the sea breeze carried with it.
One could evidently see that every individual was having a solitary holiday with their mobile, despite having the fortune of having friends, family and or even that special someone, accompanying them.
While its natural to bring out your photography skills on a holiday… Here, it almost felt like the urge to holiday was devised because one wanted to take those videos.
One of the most hilarious instances I witnessed was when a group of three, beautifully-dressed women entered a shack, during a sunset on Anjuna beach. They ordered a beer and asked the waiter for the Wi-Fi password saying:
“Bhaiya, jaldi password do. Reel banana hai!” (Brother, tell us the password soon. We want to make reels.)
They left the shack once they were done taking innumerable pictures and videos of themselves, with the sunset as their background.
Everybody Is A Content Creator
The latest obsession with videos is evident from YouTube’s latest claim to have contributed crores to India’s economy. Meta claimed that six million Instagram reels are being made every day, in an unprecedented rise of short video platforms, post the exit of Tik Tok from our country.
Several media stories have analysed the growth of India’s creator economy—wherein there are sections of people who are leaving their regular jobs to become creators. Some have also linked this to the growing unemployment in India.
Travel, which is usually considered to be a source of replenishing oneself, rediscovering, reinvention, finding joy in the company of co-travellers–has been reduced to innumerable hours consumed in the making of videos in today’s time.
These videos could be of anything and everything, possibly. Almost every household in India has had a certain Covid-19 story: a story of loss, pain, vulnerability, economic troubles etc. And, as the number of cases decline, there seems to be an urgent need to capture our memories of freedom and the joys of not being under a lockdown.
However, this is also gradually leading us to become incapable of relishing “real” moments with our friends, families, partners and the nature. We are unable to even enjoy the food we eat without a moment of digital intervention.
The life we are living is gradually becoming unpredictable, with pandemics and human-generated global conflicts. Hence, it’s even more important to live the life we have generously.
Technology and apps are a wonderful source of information, entertainment and mode of communication. So they must be learnt and optimally used to generate joy and income. But, let us try and not ignore the circumference of people and natural habitat we live in, at the cost of time spent on these apps.
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Disclaimer: the writer currently works in the news aggregation space.