18. IS SOCIETY DEAD?

 18. IS SOCIETY DEAD?

„Is society dead‟ is written by Andrew Michael Sullivan, a British author. This article is about „I-pod‟ generation.

Author says how modern technological devices have taken control of life. He uses colourful examples to state how technology has affected us. 

Author talks about his experience while he is walking through the streets of New York. He could not believe about the changes happened to the city because he had already heard that New York is full of night-life. But here he could not find it. 

The day life was also much quieter with mixtures of yells, chatter, hustle and rudeness. Manhattan‟s down town is a Disney like string of malls and middle class villages. He noticed something special in the town. There were white wires hanging down from their ears or tucked into pockets, purses or jackets. Each one was in his own shut asylum forgetting about the world around them. It is an I-pad world that he saw there. All are in their own cocoons. No sound is heard by them except their music. Even if someone says „excuse me‟ or „hello‟, there is no response. The author is also one among them. He is also having the white wires peeping out of his ears. He says that he started with a walkman, then a MP3 player and at last an I-pad won over him. Once it was a musical diversion for him. But now it has become a „compulsive obsession.‟ now the attitude of the people is „don‟t ask, don‟t overhear, don‟t observe – just tune in and tune out. „Technology has given us a universe entirely for ourselves because the entire world is in our finger tips. It has become a society without any social elements. Earlier we had homes where we want to relax Then we did not walk around like hermit crabs. 

Earlier music was limited to the living room and it was a shared experience that brought people together. But now music has become a personal secret. The author is telling that we are missing many things in life because of this – the funny conversations, the chatting sound of a child which may take us to our childhood, the songs, the laughter of others, etc.. Even boredom has its uses. We are forced to find out our own methods to overcome this boredom. 

In the last part he says that when he went for a trip, he left out his I-pod behind. Though he was worried at first, later he understood that he can enjoy the rhythms of others again; the sounds of airplane, the opinions of taxi drivers, etc. He wonderfully noticed how all are connected to each other. 

He concludes his essay by opening a world around us. He admits how he himself was addicted to I-pod and the „apple products‟ and the dislike he had for the way that technology has had on society itself.