Net, paper, squabbles
YEARS ago when the world-wide web made its advent, it took the world akin a storm. An entire generation saw the rise of electronic-based liaisons in every sense of the word.
This became an immediate threat to the publications and paper-based everyday affairs. It was said at the time, that within a decade, the paper would go out of fashion. It was however, otherwise.
Newspapers, magazines and other publishing companies sought out ways to supplement their tangible bases (the paper). Sales of the same had dropped significantly. What they did is a long story, however, the gist of that very story is, they used the same websites and electronic venues towards promoting their legacy – a legacy, which was the printed books and papers. They succeeded.
The petty quarrel of thoughts between the rising web-based technology (now an inherent part of our lives) and the traditional methods of relaying thoughts never truly saw an end.
However, what became of them was a merger with undefined borders (both using each other’s services to benefit from.
We all know the pros and cons of world-wide web and its offshoots. What we are now missing is the traditional touch, which is imperative for the generations following ours.
What is the traditional touch? To make it simple, the traditional touch is the tangibility of paper-based products and newspapers for instance – add to that, board games in their physical form, which are one of the most important elements for a generation to grow up on.
Why is this important? Now, here, the answer to this question is not simple enough. Recall the time when the newspaper would be delivered for the elders to read.
Not a small deed. It has retention value. Lying around after being read by the relevant family members it would pass on to the children, who inadvertently, though, would glance through some parts of it.
These very written parts from the papers, books and magazines would make a place in the child’s subconscious. And this particular sense is what is popularly known in slang as ‘hunch’. Same goes for the board games in their physical form and tangibility and involvement towards a child’s mind and body coordination.
The subconscious would then, in return bring up the feel, smell and the matter of the traditional touch as an adult, which the child had experienced earlier.
The benefit is, these senses were real, pertaining to the five senses humans have. These senses helped the child develop the most important of the senses, ‘the sixth sense’. The sense which comes from within.
The sixth sense helps children as adults knowing their direction from the back of the mind, which cannot be developed by an electronic-based or technological device (although I myself have been addicted to the electronics but I know that I was raised with primarily the traditional method not because I did not have electronic games, etc., but I was propelled by my parents towards the tradition then the electronic material, therefore I am first a writer followed by being a digital strategist). This was only an example.
—The writer is Senior Contributor to major Dailies & Magazines, Digital Media Strategist.
