More than just a blue dot

Hena Kumar Sukhna

Travelling from Ludhiana to Chandigarh, I was amazed to see how my entire world had started revolving around a blue dot. For that moment, Google maps had my utmost gratitude. From early childhood, we make sense of ourselves in relation to the wider physical world by collecting information spatially. And that is exactly what I was doing here in my adulthood, via a smartphone. 

Smartphones have revolutionised our lives in ways that go beyond the way we communicate. It has not just become a ready source of distraction, but has frighteningly diminished my in-person interactions with friends and family. 

I remember how when my IRS training took me to Europe, it was only due to digital maps that I was able to carouse the cities as an informed, individualistic, urban drifter, laying navigational plans like objects of symbolic pride without getting lost and without having to utter a single word to local residents. 

But what about the basic premise of travelling — travelling outside of our comfort zone and into the unknown? The concept of getting lost is lost to all of us. My father told me a story about how one day, while aimlessly cycling through the streets of Jaipur during his young, carefree pre-LBSNAA training days, had ended up gatecrashing a wedding and being invited by the bold and beautiful Maharani of Jaipur, Gayatri Devi, for a tete-a-tete. 

Can today’s generation boast of having such priceless memories? We do not have the time for personal experiences; we are too busy making digital ones. We know where we are heading, how and when we want to go. We are in complete control of not just ourselves, but also our environment. The lucky ‘misadventures’, countless stories, meeting with strangers, witnessing of cultural mash-up, has all become a thing of the past. We are cruising at lightning speed, all thanks to digitalisation. Everything has become too personal, too typical, too self-centered, too much ours. We have made ourselves the centre of our own world. 

Digital maps and smartphones are somehow making us lose our grip on the cities as a collective. It’s changing the way we understand the world. The concept of pocket maps, compasses and perambulators are no longer significant. While the lost art form of traditional cartography is shifting, its fundamentals have also undergone a change. This change has a direct bearing on our behaviour. 

The idea of asking for directions is no longer justifiable, rather it is frowned upon. We are immersed in apps and devices that are quietly reducing the amount of meaningful interaction we have with people. We are all strangers, connected yet detached. I wonder, if someday we would be able to chart  emotions and memories onto a digital map as well. Maybe, it can be our very own little red dot. We possess an enviable power — the earth and everyone on it is truly and virtually in the palm of our hand.