The Great Chasms

I often hear elderly people speaking- In our days things were like this and that... and today people are just running after this and that....

And I am doubly sure that you would have experienced the same and even those who speak (the old ones) didn't escape these comments in their wee days.

This becomes all the more acute when I visit country side and back home talking to my cousin who haven't been much exposed to what I live with.

Their way of life is a far cry from what I (and most of us) live with. For them the window to the world is still pretty much a radio or at best a TV. While here we're taking about Twitter and Second Life. So where does all of this come from? And should one really be worried about such comments and the stark differences? So here's my view:

There are two types of chasms (gaps) that I can point out here:

• First is between our elderly and us (or between them and their elderly). Classically called the Generation Gap;
• And the second one is between me and my cousin back home. The rural-urban gap, the Digital Divide or what ever one may call it as.

Interestingly both the gaps are widening, very fast. With every passing generation, the lifestyle is changing so much more that it's hard to contrast. Think for a moment, the comfort level we have as against our parents in using Internet and its gifts? Or for that matter our view towards life of not conserving for that 'rainy day' while they spent their lives without really spending? And believe me this gap would only widen as generations pass by to the level of absolute disconnect.It's already happening with migrated Indians at UK and the US.

The second one also doesn't look relenting. There's a huge disconnect that I am already experiencing between me and my relatives back home. Nothing is bad or wrong, but it's different. I don't know for sure that where this will lead both of us, but it's for real that we are diverging and diverging fast.

If Darwin were present today, (Dawkins is though playing that role), he would have reasoned out the second Evolution, caused much by the Technology Divide. So let's work towards crossing the Chasm!

Few may opine that Technology can only bridge the Technology Chasm.

Let me share this very interesting Hierarchy of Cyber needs as depicted by Evgeny Morozov in one of the TED Talks where he opines that Cyber Access may not necessarily make economies develop and people connect. In fact 'digital-natives' may (and are) become isolated more than being connected. So think about it.