I received a message from a distant relative telling me that she had seen “The Day of the Jackal” a long time ago, and it was a fantastic movie. I was briefly surprised. During our morning walk, we had a conversation about Trump surviving a near assassination attempt, which subsequently led us to discuss “The Day of the Jackal” movie, based on a book of the same name. The movie depicts how French President Charles de Gaulle survives a near-perfect gunshot, planned most meticulously, when he bends at the exact moment to take a flower from a little girl. My walking companion became captivated by the movie and asked for a screenshot of the movie’s page as we were leaving. I sent it across, but I do not know what buttons I pressed on my smartphone; it also became the status on my WhatsApp. All my contacts could see it now. This explained the mystery how my distant relative was able to view it, and it brought back memories of a movie she had seen in the past. I realized this with a smile and urgently deleted my status.
There are genuine risks associated with the world of social media for both adults and children. In his book, “The Anxious Generation”, Jonathan Haidt chillingly demonstrates how social media is causing a mental rewiring of growing children. Essentially, children are transitioning from a “play-based” childhood to a “phone-based” childhood, while parental strategies have shifted to strict monitoring in the real world to absent monitoring in the virtual world. It should be the other way around. Parents cannot control what children access on password-protected smartphones. The author demonstrates a significant increase in cases of mental depression, isolation, and suicide among the generation particularly exposed to smartphones during their teenage years. He advocates for a complete ban on smartphones until the age of 15 and for schools to strictly prohibit their use.
However, smartphones also pose risks to adults, as an inadvertent mistake such as mine can lead to potentially disastrous consequences. A close friend of mine, who retired from government service in a senior position, recalls how once while travelling by bus, he was looking at the messages. Those were the early days of smartphones and social media. Someone from a group of old schoolmates had sent a picture for consumption that exceeded the boundaries of decency by the hugest of leaps and bounds. The picture had the solid potential to cause divorces and breakups if the wife or fiancée happened to see it. My friend was extremely flustered at the sudden appearance of the picture on his smartphone.
Attempting to delete it out of embarrassment, he was shocked to discover that it had become a profile photo for his departmental WhatsApp group. The group also included the district collector. In deep shock, he started profusely sweating, and his hair literally stood on end. As he stared with bulging eyeballs and dilated pupils at the newly purchased smartphone held in his sweaty palms, his heart banged against his chest wall. The bus arrived in a small town. He desperately peered out his window, finally spotting a cell phone shop. He ran out of the bus and barged into the small shop.
He held the smartphone to the surprised owner and asked him to urgently remove the group icon of a crucial department of the government. If the collector happened to see it, he or she would undoubtedly issue a memo, if not a suspension. My friend, who was fervently praying to all the gods, was well aware of the implications, as he was already receiving calls from his colleagues. One colleague questioned why he had changed the group’s profile picture from a staider one featuring a smiling Chief Minister to a racier one. Was he making a statement of some sort?
Undoubtedly, a few of his more irresponsible friends might smile, but the majority, particularly the women, would likely be deeply repulsed by my friend, a senior officer overseeing a district. He always was the epitome of a gentleman, with impeccably ironed attire, polished shoes, a clean shave, and a small “tilak” adorning his forehead, symbolizing his devoutness. This episode, if it came in the open, would have been a significant blow to his reputation. The media would have lapped it up too.
The shop owner looked at the profile picture and gave a sly, all-knowing smile to my shivering friend. “It was not on purpose,” my friend muttered. The shop owner smiled more crookedly than before. In no time, he removed the group icon, but not before levying a hefty fees on my dear friend. My friend boarded the next bus with a sense of relief, as the previous one had already departed without him. But he was fine to wait for the bus that day.
Such are the dangers of smartphones. These dangers apply to both the young and the old. The young, of course, can be totally influenced to go haywire. However, but the aged too can end up in situations that might be detrimental to their well-laid personal and professional lives if not handled well and one presses the wrong buttons!
