What is the first thing we do when go traveling, or entering a McDonald’s? Look for Wi-Fi, connect the phone and check our emails, or cruise through our social media platforms to catch up on all the news of our family and friends. Everywhere we looking for best wifi routers to connect.
Wi-Fi is like oxygen
Needless to say, the Internet has been the sole reason why long-distance relationships seem more bearable and long lost childhood friends still maintain in contact. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snap Chat logs every hour of a person’s life. Public Wi-Fi is a reality that keeps us perpetually connected. So, keeping tabs on a person, or the more extreme form—cyber stalking—has become much easier.
Enjoying a dinner over Skype, celebrating cultural festivals a continent away because of the miracles like video calling and instant messaging have enabled us to make a more connected global community. However, is Internet connection a bane in disguise?
Could Wi-Fi be harmful?
Just like every other phenomenon, Wi-Fi has its own demerits. When we become immersed in the digital world that the Internet has to offer, we often forget to pay heed to our surroundings. Wi-Fi is the portal that leads to that very sacred Internet connection, without which we have been conditioned into feeling handicapped.
Wi-Fi affects daily lives
Sometimes, the jarring ill effects reflect in the relationships we have with the people right next to us, quite literally. A very common manifestation is ignoring our near and dear ones because we are too obsessed with something as trivial and transient as the number of likes the new profile picture has received.
Then, forgetting to enjoy the scenery of a beautiful travel destination because we are bound by the necessity to upload an Instagram story and get the maximum number of views. God help us if we don’t have access to Wi-Fi. That makes us check our phones every other second, anyway. Much like withdrawal symptoms from a drug.
Wi-Fi and inadequacy
But, the more serious situation arises when we feel that our lives are not adequate. Viewing the happy and gay pictures of some acquaintance, or an arbitrary blogger can instill a sense of inadequacy and unhappiness with all the things in our lives that should make us grateful.
That beautiful dress your frenemy from the university is wearing, or the opulent lifestyle your distant cousin is indulging in creates a sort of negativity that can be very detrimental.
This does not lead to bonding or connection, and in most cases, does just the opposite by inculcating a competitive attitude and lots of unnecessary jealousy. It drives people to show off and upload pictures and statuses they might not actually be doing.
Wi-Fi can kill communication
Connection requires communication. Now, a pertinent question arises whether so much Internet access via Wi-Fi has actually degraded human communication skills. Emoticons and GIFs have been developed to make text messages more engaging and endearing, but have they actually eaten away a part of the bonding procedure that happens over telephone conversations?
Emails have replaced postal mail, postcards are history, selfies with the celebrity is the new autograph, ecards have replaced a handmade card—all these are the effects of this new digital era.
The text has obliterated ink. However, the love and dedication behind a handwritten letter are unparalleled. Love letters, fan mail, hate letters, letters to show you’re missing someone have been replaced with a few smileys. No amount of emojis can replace talking and sharing. With social media taking up all of our time, conversing face to face has suffered a terrible setback.
Conversations vs. interaction over Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi has made conversations so much easier because of instant messaging that unfortunately diminishes the value of literate communication by using word abbreviations and texting-style acronyms.
Putting together a lucid, eloquent and coherent sentence, without the interjection of “ums…” and “you knows…” is steadily on the decline. Now people require soft-skill classes (ironically, mostly over the Internet) to develop the conversational attitude.
Listening is a forgotten art. It is very common for parents to have to repeat the same things because their children have headphones on and are in a different world of virtual reality. Decline in real-life conversations may lead to the emergence of a socially awkward and withdrawn generation.
Room for remedy
Undoubtedly, Wi-Fi access has made life smoother and easier than anyone a decade back could have hoped for. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are realities that make today’s fast life a little more colorful. They are instantaneous, available 24/7 and extremely user friendly. However, they can never replace the value of verbal conversation.
Wi-Fi, in all its forms, should be used to enhance human contact, not replace it. It has immense potential to create the world that is together and in sync at all times. Wi-Fi gives access to information and is a knowledge bank that scientists of the Renaissance had only dreamed about.
With its omnipresence, one can only hope for a more connected community, provided the generation does not forget to look up from their electronic devices and feel something other than the keypad. if you want more information about wifi routers then read more at reviewscon.com