Happiness and Mobile Phones

Most of us like to believe that mobile phones have brought in a lot of happiness in our lives. You are more connected. more entertained and more reachable.

Now everything else might be all right but this "more reachable" factor can be of some grave concern. The minute you make yourself more reachable you are giving others an infinite right to intrude in your mind, your time and ultimately your life.

The other day while driving back home in the evening I got caught in a traffic jam. And, I saw a really strange spectacle, in the car next to me! There were 4 people in the vehicle and all of them talking into cell-phones. Now I am pretty sure that they were not talking to each other!! So visualize this scenario 4 people with 4 phones and 4 different conversations, all within one car! Are we not taking this mobile phones business a little too far?

And as if that was not enough, I found that once the conversations on their phones were over these four people sat quietly in the car, not talking a word to each other!! The only time they seemed to talk was either when they got a call or made a call on their mobile phones.

I would think it is much more enjoyable to talk in person then on a phone. But today we have replaced personal communications with mobile phones. I am sure all of us have at one time or the other really cursed people for calling on our mobiles at all sorts of hours. This intrusion never allows us to relax; somehow the cell phone occupies your mind at all times. It is as if you are on a leash, never free, never on your own. We all realize this but are we doing anything to prevent it? Not really!!

Because somehow we have started believing that if we are not reachable heavens will fall and the world will stop going around. Believe me nothing is further from the truth. People don't call you because you are indispensable or utterly important, but mostly as they want to transfer their burdens on your head - be it personal or official. Because they know they can reach you anytime they don't want to wait even for unimportant things.

To be truly happy you need to keep aside sometime in the day for your own self - a time when you are in your own company, with your own self! A time wherein there is no pressure bogging you down, no person trying to make you listen to him/her.

Moreover the joy you feel in the company of another person cannot be substituted for by phones. So, from now on switch off your mobiles for at least a few hours in the day. If you are too addicted to it then at least put the ringer off and later call back the people whose calls you might have missed. Let it be your choice!! Try it for a few days and then see how much of a burden is taken off your head; you will suddenly feel lighter, happier and more joyous!!