By Amishi Bajaj Contributing columnist November 25, 2011 6:08PM
In a lifestyle as fast-paced as ours, time is quite the commodity. We are always on the move: running, leaping, flying to achieve the American Dream. I have personally wondered how much I can truly achieve in a day. Is it plausible to plan to work out at the gym, write a midterm paper, start shopping for the holiday season and do laundry all in one day? What if I wanted to add to the list — read a Jodi Picoult novel and play the piano? Sometimes the answer would be yes, and other times, I’d find myself less successful. Marie Curie discovered radium, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped lead the temperance movement. And I couldn’t finish laundry? What was I busy with instead? Where all of my time went, I wasn’t really too sure.
Until I set foot in the Apple store.
Steve Jobs has recently left us, but he has left behind an empire. The Apple store is the kind of place of which I’d be proud to insinuate ownership. It’s distinguishable — the unmistakable buzz of excitement as potential purchases are being tested, the brightly lit signs, the pristine white that consumes the entirety of the store. The merchandise is sleek and efficient, the concept is revolutionary, and the free time in your life is whisked away from you without your consent. The more time you spend in front of the glowing monitor sold to you, the more you’re drawn into Steve Jobs’ world. That’s where my free time went – on technology.
Technology is a fantastic advancement with devastating consequences if improperly used. In my first job, I would sometimes walk by a fellow employee’s cubicle to find him hunched over a website with a distinguishable blue header. Needless to say, the solution to the work he was doing would most likely not be found on Facebook. Technology can be a severe distraction – children text in class rather than pay attention, teenagers weep as they are cyber-bullied, and parents sending out electronic invites at work consequently forget to do grocery shopping. And let’s not get started on the smart phone culture. It’s hard to look at yet another person wasting away their time on interactive apps like Angry Birds or Words With Friends without letting out an exasperated sigh.
Computers and cell phones have become the new oxygen, for without them, we cannot live. The cyber culture is addictive, as it allows for superficial self-improvement. Our appearance is seen in our best profile pictures, and our wittiness is best viewed in our tweets. Online avatar personalities conceal who we truly are, and by replacing our lives with an online world, we are abandoning the beauty underlying experience. Time is the most precious commodity of all, and so frequently we spend it online in work, networking, or pleasure that we forget to appreciate the tangibles. Some of life’s greatest essentials cannot be translated through an Internet modem — love, wisdom, and faith being among these. Stop hiding. Close your laptop lid, and get up. There’s a world outside the cyberspace we’ve synthesized and made our safe haven. Go forth, and take active part in it.
Amishi Bajaj is a resident of Oak Brook.
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