A Real World Outside Our Cyber World

Internet eases human's life. Can we deny that?

Hottest news spread in minutes. Mails reach their destinations in seconds. Families separated by continents are saying hi and swapping some vacation trip photos in social media as I'm writing this. Long-distance lovers say how much they miss their soulmates and stare at each other's eyes through video calls. Billions-rupiah business transactions are made by just one click on notebook keyboards.

Internet resizes this big, big world into a smaller one that fits our hands.

Internet connects people.

But is it true?

Let's check around us.

We see husbands and wifes having dinner at fancy restaurants. They barely whisper romantic words to each other nor laughing silly jokes together, because they are busy taking pictures of roasted peking duck on their plates then uploading it to Path, Twitter and Instagram.

We see in the morning, women and their kids sitting on  verrandahs. The kids try to make their mommies play puzzles with them, but mommies have a better thing to play alone with: smartphone and the “Ping!” sounds it makes.

We see old men at the city parks, telling life stories from their youth, while their grandsons obviously can not take their eyes off their tablets, negotiating online, trying to win a big transaction with their most important client.

So, does the internet make the world smaller, and long distance shorter?

Does it connect people?

Yes it does.

But not if we become addicted with cyber world more than our real world. Not if we know The Kardashians daily life details  (by stalking their Twitter accounts) better than we know our own family life. Not if we can chat for hours with our friends abroad through instant messages but can not enjoy a quality time with our children sitting next to us.

Don’t let the internet disconnect us from the people we care about: family and friends around us.

Cyber world is one of the greatest inventions ever made, but it can not—and it will not—replace the beauty of the real world we live in.

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