{"id":3454,"date":"2016-04-20T11:13:30","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T05:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2016-04-20T11:13:30","modified_gmt":"2016-04-20T05:43:30","slug":"work-culture-offline-social-media-detox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3454","title":{"rendered":"Can Any of Us Afford to Live Offline?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cP<\/span><\/p><\/div>

ut your phone away. It\u2019s not like the company will shut down without you. You\u2019re sick, act it,\u201d scolded my mother, as I lay in bed after a particularly bad bout of viral fever. \u201cI\u2019m not checking work maa,\u201d I lied while slyly closing the Gmail app and the office <\/span>WhatsApp <\/span><\/a>groups that I had been scanning. Of course maa wouldn\u2019t understand that work did not stop just because I called in sick. I was, after all, just a quick email-WhatsApp message away if anyone needed me. And was I expected to reply? Of course. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe truth is that in 2018, as long as you aren\u2019t dying or already dead, you are expected to be a text-email away. If that sounds drastic, well, it is. Let\u2019s face it, \u201cNever go offline\u201d, is actually a diktat most young working professionals like me truly believe in and are wholly complicit in perpetuating. People think that <\/span>millennials <\/span><\/a>are simply addicted to their phones. I present another argument: We have no choice.<\/span>\n\nOur love affair with the internet and the idea of the everything digital started like any other. We were enamoured by the \u201conline life\u201d, and like most love affairs, we fell too fast, too soon, and did not bother to watch out for any danger signs. My relationship with the online world was immersive \u2013 it was all or nothing. However, in the excitement of a new <\/span>relationship<\/span><\/a>, it seemed like everyone forgot that something this perfect, open, accepting, and available to us, could have its own failures. But we didn\u2019t care. We were in love after all. <\/span>\n\nFor someone like me, born in the late <\/span>\u201990s<\/span><\/a>, the internet was a medium I was not only born with but one I learned to live on while teaching those older than me how to navigate it. Today, in India, millennials, people between the age of 18 to 35,<\/span> account for<\/span><\/a> 34 per cent of the country\u2019s total population. Out of that, an astounding 84 per cent are already reliant on mobile broadband, <\/span>spending<\/span><\/a> an average of 17 hours a week online. From food and clothing to relationships and even <\/span>sex<\/span><\/a>, everything the Indian millennial needs is available online. For a generation that was born almost alongside it, the internet has become one of the biggest crutches we depend on. But the question is: Can we get away from it? Here I present you, with the profound lyrics of the \u201990s, some food for thought: \u201cBin tere sanam mar mitenge hum, aa meri zindagi\u2026\u201d <\/span>\n\nAsk any person between the age of 12 to 35, if they can live without the internet, and you\u2019ll get a resounding yes. Challenge them to do it, and many might take it up. Ask them if they can afford to do it, and you\u2019d see dumbfound faces, as they realise that life without the internet is not just tough, it\u2019s something that perhaps most people living in major cities, working in MNCs, cannot afford. For a 22-year-old with a <\/span>job<\/span><\/a>, offline is not an option. The work culture today demands that you are available at your boss\u2019s beck and call \u2013 over the phone, on WhatsApp, and email. Slack and the 10 others who a ready to fill your shoes and be forever connected. Unavailability usually comes with drawback \u2013 you either lose out on opportunities, or worse still, are seen as \u201cirresponsible\u201d. Checking mails while commuting to and from work, fielding calls on your vacation is now a routine part. <\/span>\n\n

Unplugging is strictly for the brave, not for the needy or the insecure or anyone whose life might look worryingly empty once stripped to the bare essentials<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nIf you are not doing any of that, you are either putting up a Facebook post, outraging on Twitter, or checking Instagram. You can\u2019t walk into a meeting the next morning and risk to be ridiculed because you did not read @wokeboyhimtoo\u2019s outrageous tweet on #MeToo. Or even catch up with friends if you haven\u2019t watched the latest episode of <\/span>BoJack<\/span><\/i><\/a>. \u201cWhat do you mean you\u2019ve not been online for two days? What detox? Jeez, you are too entitled for your age,\u201d a friend, who decided to go offline for a few days, was told once. <\/span>\n\nIn 2016, France <\/span>gave its citizens<\/span><\/a> a \u201cright to disconnect\u201d which meant that French companies were required to guarantee their employees a \u201cright to disconnect\u201d from technology in a bid to tackle the modern-day scourge of compulsive out-of-hours email checking. But in India right now, a person\u2019s position in terms of the right and ability to live offline is a <\/span>privilege<\/span><\/a>. Unplugging and refusing to be ceaselessly on-call and deciding your own availability are looked at as signs that you are entitled and powerful. Being disconnected is turned into a commodity that few can afford. Luxury resorts that offer to hold and monitor smartphones for guests are just the tip of the iceberg. <\/span>\n\nA Guardian essay <\/span>titled<\/span><\/a> \u201cHow living offline became the new status symbol\u201d says, \u201cUnplugging is strictly for the brave, not for the needy or the insecure or anyone whose life might look worryingly empty once stripped to the bare essentials. And that\u2019s why most of us find a technological crash diet dismayingly hard to stick to; why a simpler life remains just a fantasy.\u201d<\/span>\n\nThis need of total disconnection is atypical of a generation that is trying to find a quick way out of the bind they find themselves in, but this old Ross and <\/span>Rachel <\/span><\/a>method of \u201ctaking a break\u201d, undergoing a complete digital detox has become the latest answer to Keto or a juice cleanse. Everyone wants it, and it seems to be affecting no one in the manner they want. And everyone knows, that just like Ross and Rachel, this break isn\u2019t really going to work out. \u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe answer may lie, as it usually does, in the middle. I\u2019m going to try and switch off between 9 pm and 9 am, for starters, and if the world doesn\u2019t stop rotating on its axis, maybe it\u2019s a sign that we can one day find a solution that\u2019s more sustainable than a <\/span>detox<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going offline is not an option. The work culture today demands that you are available 24X7 \u2013 over the phone, on WhatsApp, and email. And even if it\u2019s not work, can you walk into a conversation if you have nothing to say about that viral tweet from @wokeboyhimtoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":3455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[197],"tags":[2113,6595,354,1127,1203,5456,3106,6596,6597,632,357,6598,939,4770],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-culture","tag-detox","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-internet","tag-luxury","tag-memes","tag-mobile-phones","tag-offline","tag-snapchat","tag-social-media","tag-switch-off","tag-whatsapp","tag-work"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Any of Us Afford to Live Offline?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Going offline is not an option. The work culture today demands that you are available 24X7 \u2013 over the phone, on WhatsApp, and email. 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