Smart phones making us dumber

Ive recently noticed that my memory power has taken a huge toll. I cant seem to recollect things instantly, I find it hard to remember phone numbers or email addresses and most importantly I cant seem to keep my focus and attention on one thing for too long. I dont blame it on age, im not that old yet to forget things, I blame it on the smart phones that we carry.

Gone are the days when we tried to remember stuff, phone numbers, birthdays and some important details. Everything now is noted down on the easy to use smartphones for future reference. While on the one side it is good, as everything is noted down and wont be missed but on the other side it is killing our innate ability to remember things. Our brains and the gray cells in them are being deprived of some much needed exercise which is a disaster in the making. Just imagine, when was the last time you calculated something in your head and not have to pull out your phone and use the calculator on it? Not so long ago additions, multiplication subtractions and other such calculations could be easily done in the head without using any calculating device. Can you imagine doing the same now?

Apart from making us dumb, smart phones are also detaching us from real world, in simple words they are making us Anti-social. I was recently at a pub with friends and this is what I saw. 4 guys at the table and instead of just talking to each other and laughing together and having fun, this is what they were doing. Lost in their phones. All the social media applications that can so easily be accessed via the smart phones are keeping everyone hooked on to the virtual world and disconnecting them from the real world. I dont blame social media for this, it has really helped a great deal in making the world a smaller place. Its the constant need and desire to get online is what is ruining everything.

All people want to do is go on to Facebook, checkout what others are doing and posting on FB to tell the world about the fun they are having instead of actually having fun.The first thing that most people do these days after going out is check-in at that place and tag all the people they are with and add with it a tacky comment "Having fun with - XXX at YYY". After this they will come back again to check how many people liked it and if anyone commented on it, reply to it and that cycle goes on. Its not only making us anti social, its actually making us socially awkward. We are so used to having all these virtual conversations that when it comes to talking face to face, we have no idea where to start or how to keep a conversation going. Sad state of affairs. 

Another disturbingly regular routine seems to be this: Unlock phone, check whatsapp, switch to FB and scroll a little, then switch to instagram, another round of scrolling, then snapchat, another round of scrolling, not finding anything interesting and lock back the phone. 5 mins pass and the cycle repeats. I mean what madness is that? Whats with the desperation to keep checking all these things all the time? I don't have words to express how disgusted I feel when I see this routine (not that im snooping around or something. You just get to see the person right in front of you do all this). I personally don't do this, I'm either reading a book or just thinking about something while on the commute but definitely not this.

This constant switching between different applications is also robbing us of the ability to concentrate and keep focus on one thing for too long. You keep switching from one task to another just like how you switch from one application to another and there by reducing productivity. Not one task is ever worked on at one stretch. This really isn't a good sign. I have personally fallen prey to this. I recently had the good fortune of not having to carry my phone for two days and I must say it was such a relief. My hand was really itchy to reach into my pocket for my phone. Luckily it wasn't there and I really got a lot more work done those two days as compared to any other days. It was a welcome change.

The fix: This is what I would suggest and will personally try this week. We obviously cant go around without the phones, the least we can do is switch off the WiFi and mobile data. Keep it off for at least a few hours and focus on the task at hand. With the connectivity gone, the phone wont keep buzzing all the time with notifications from different applications. No buzzing means no itchiness to check the phone. No checking phone means more useful work done. Sounds simple doesn't it? Im gonna try this for a week. Lets see how it goes.

#SmartPhones #Socialmedia #Smartphonesmakingusdumb

So pluto is back in our geography text books as the 9th planet

So, we found that pluto isn't that small a planet after all and that it has a heart shaped cloud formation on it. It cannot be ignored and that its worthy enough to be called a planet again. Thats great news. How far is pluto from earth? Billions of light years away. And we have the technology and the know how to look so far into space and identify an uninhabitable planet and some of its properties. It is proof of the technological prowess that we humans possess and also bigger proof that there is infact a creator, I call God, who made the entire universe. The whole big bang theory is something people made up when they couldn't explain how we all came into existence.

I'm just kidding, but yeah, it is proof that we are just a small insignificant little thing in this amazing universe. I'm reminded of what Calvin said in the famous cartoon strip Calvin and Hobes, he says that "The surest sign that there is intelligent life beyond the earth is that they didn't try to contact us".

I find that really funny and so true. We are only aware of the known universe, who knows what else is out there. There could really be aliens or another human race somewhere which is trying to achieve the same feat as we are.

Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand, the re-discovery of Pluto is celebration of the greatness of human beings and the incredible advancements we have made in the field of space technology. It is an incredible mark in human history, but where is the ill-fated MH370? 

Its been about a year I guess since this flight just disappeared into thin air and we still haven't found any evidence whatsoever that it has crash landed or about where it might be at this moment. My condolences to the family members who lost their loved ones in the flight. I feel they would live a more peaceful life if they could at-least get an answer about what exactly happened to the flight. After all closure in anything is so important. There are many rumors or in fact there are conclusions that the flight has crash landed somewhere, but where?

I find it utterly incredulous that we have the technological know how to find out about something in the unknown depths of space that to be frank doesn't have any significant impact on our lives, but we aren't able to use atleast a fraction of that same technology to find out about a missing flight somewhere on the known circumference of the earth. Its just beyond words.

Well that's just my thought after seeing all the news about Pluto.

P.S : This little write up, by no means takes away any credit that NASA deserves for this incredible feat. Its just a thought about how I (and im sure many more)  feel about MH370 mystery.

Peace :)

Bahubali Movie Review : An honest opinion about an Epic movie

The much hyped and the much awaited movie of the century, Bahubali is here and I had the opportunity to watch it last weekend. It is touted to be the most costliest Indian movie ever. There was extensive use of CGI (Computer generated Images) and a lot of hype about how the protagonist and the Antagonist in the movie had worked really hard to attain certain physique specifically for this movie. Well that's anyways the norm these days, look different for each movie. And to check out what all the hype and noise was about this movie, I finally watched it last weekend. A last moment booking but I'm glad I did. Mind you, the only difference was that I didn't check-in on FB while at the theater to let the world know im watching the movie at that moment, you'll get to know shortly why I added this one important piece of information in this review.

So to begin with, I have to say it was an incredible effort by S.S Rajamouli to come up with this idea, put in so much hard work and finally make it a reality. This happens to be the only movie to make Rs. 100 crores in record time. It took only about a week to get there. A very commendable effort.  I just couldn't identify a single flaw in the movie, the actors were amazing, the direction, the CGI used, the whole set up, story line everything, everything was spell bounding. The fact that it comes from Tollywood, the Telugu film industry is a matter of pride.

Prabhas, Rana, Anushka, Tamanna and specially Ramya Krishna did a spectacular job. It was so nice to see Ramyakrishna back to acting. The movie was deliberately made in two parts. The first part was ended so abruptly that it left the audience with a hunger to find out what happens in the second part. A master stroke again by a master director. The story line was great, the songs were so so, but the direction was spotless.

The Actors: A lot of hype was created about how Rana and Prabhas worked their asses off to attain a specific physique. Good job I tell you, but it was more mass than definition. I personally work out tremendously and in my point of view, all they did was just widen the torso(the coveted V) and developed huge shoulders and arms, but no visible definition. Its a personal opinion but kudos to the actors for all the dedication and hard work.
The highlight of the movie for me was Ramyakrishna, the power she showed in her acting was speechless, worthy of many of those prestigious awards. In fact, her acting was so good that I had good pimples in one of the scenes where she admonishes the character Nasir plays for trying to influence her to do something against her will.

The screenplay and direction: SS Rajamouli, take a bow, you have really overtook everyone else and brought out a masterpiece. This is one movie which will be talked about for a long long time. I will not go into technicalities or the storyline because I don't want to mess it up for anyone who is yet to watch the movie.Overall an incredible effort and surely a feather in the hat of the indian film industry. It is proof that we dont always make hero or heroine oriented movies and that we can push the boundaries and make epic movies like this.

What did I think about the movie? Personally it was a little bit of a meh moment for me. For a regular Hollywood movie watcher, this is just another one of those highly animated movies. The resemblances to the movie Troy were just uncanny. The epic war scene, the boundary of soldiers to take on the oncoming enemy, all of it looked very similar to how it was done in Troy. I know I shouldn't be drawing comparisons like this, its just that when you could use such high level of graphics and everything else, why not break boundaries and make something different. Of-course for a regular non-Hollywood movie watcher this is surely an epic and since that was anyway the target audience, it worked great. We are now comparing ourselves to other film industries and so I feel that with all the available technology and most importantly the budget, they should do something which was never done before. This could actually act as a platform over which they can build better movies. Magadhira was the first such period movie the sorts of which was never seen before. It deserved to be the hit that it was, Bahubali also falls in the period movie category what with all the kings and queens and epic battles but apart from the fact that the level of graphics was more, it was ok. A lot better could be done.

So overall I would say this is one of the most amazing movies I have ever watched. Extraordinary considering it is from an Indian film industry. I would definitely recommend everyone I know to watch it in a theater.

Wishing all the success and awards that this incredible movie deserves and looking forward to the next part to be released in 2016.

#Bahubali #Tollywood #moviereview #movie #review #Prabhas #Rana #Ramyakrishna #SSRajamouli

The Hashtag (#) madness

I have noticed that in recent times there has been an incredible increase in the use of hashtags (#) on different social networks. As far as I remember, it was first started on Twitter to collate articles or discussions related to a particular topic. This was done by marking those topics by using specific hashtags. It has now trickled down to facebook and I must say, it is being misused and abused to the core. People are using it without even knowing how it works and all because they saw someone else do it and thought it was cool. Herd mentality I tell you.

To start with, lets understand how a hashtag works:

A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which makes it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character (or number sign) # in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end. Searching for that hashtag will then present each message that has been tagged with it.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag

So as you see, it was supposed to mark or collate topics related to a specific subject. This is now a days also being used for statistics. If you see any news channels, after any big event the first thing they report is the hashtag that is trending and have a discussions about that. The main problem at hand is ignored, just the hashtag and who all used that hashtag is all that seems to matter. I really dont see any point of such a statistic, but who am I to say. Today its the hashtag, tomorrow it will be something else and people will blindly follow it.

Talking about this in the facebook perspective, I dont know what goes through peoples mind when they hashtag the craziest of the things. Take for example a recent post by a friend of mine. She put a pic of her working out and put this huge hashtag saying "#shouldnthaveeatenthatpizzaforlunch, #burningofftheextracalories". How does that even make sense? Why would something as random as that trend in any social network? Whats the rationale behind using that phrase as a hashtag? You think there are other people who think they "shouldnt have eaten that pizza for lunch"? FB already gives you a hundred million options to let people know how you are feeling, where you are and whom you with and and a gazzillion other options, and that's still not enough. You still need a barrage of hashtags to tell people about all the extra feelings for which FB doenst have as a standard template. Madness I say, utter foolishness.

It makes sense if facebook pages (business, entertainment or stuff like that) make use of hashtags, it will draw traffic to a page there by increasing the reach, but for regular posts as well? Why? People are already paranoid about privacy. They have the highest security settings on FB and everywhere else and still they want to use hashtags which inherently draws attention to you. If people really cared about privacy that much, they should refrain from using these stupid hashtags. FB has ruined people by making them live in a virtual world and being more bothered about what others in a different part of the world are doing and not about the person sitting right beside you. That's another topic of discussion, you will soon see a post about that.  

So there, thats what I think about all your stupid hashtags. Please..oh damn, i dont even know what to plead for but you get the drift. The picture below summarizes my feelings perfectly.

 #hashtags #hashtagmadness #crazypeople #stupidpeople #herdmentality. There you go, my share of hashtags :P