My parents have been using different smart phones lately. Years ago, they started off with a classic Nokia phone and then switched to the express music ones. Now, they use the so called ‘smart phone’. The transition has not been a cake walk but they appreciated the progress they noticed in terms of technology. But now, my dad is a pro at using it. He finds it wonderful and amazing. He enjoys texting with those cute emoticons on WhatsApp and watching YouTube videos at ease. I find it funny when he sends ‘forward messages’ though I have received similar ones years ago! My mom likes the fact that she is just a click away from ‘seeing’ her kids whenever she wants to. Though they realize that their children are not literally present with them, they are filled with wonder on how technology has diluted their feeling of emptiness.

My youngest cousin on the other hand effortlessly handles smart phones at the age of 6. A moment of wonder struck my dad when he encountered the little cousin messing around with all kinds of games and apps on his new smart phone. When my parents were introduced to the iPhone, they asked intriguingly “Where’s the back button?” And when my uncle started using his windows smart phone, he was not sure if it had a ‘Home’ screen. But the little kid is very well aware of all the phones with different operating systems. She knows where to find the gallery in a windows phone, how to download games in an android one and why there is no back button in an iPhone. The former generation find this ‘talent’ of Generation Y and Z amazing and alluring.

Though they complain about the effects of current lifestyle, they still are amazed in a number of ways. I ‘envy’ this amusement of theirs. I ‘envy’ the way they are filled with wonder about everything they see now. Why? Because I’m pretty sure I would not go ‘wow’ in the future for everything I come across. I don’t consider my little cousin’s act of handling different smart phones an achievement. In fact I feel pity, that the Gen Z are going to ruin their lives much earlier than I did! Sad thing that they cannot play ‘real’ games everyday like I used to and also watch cartoons that actually made sense.

We are at a point where drastic technological advancements have been achieved. All we see is a ‘jellybean’ becoming a ‘kitkat’ or 4s promoting to 5s.  But the older generations did undergo and experience a lot of development in various fields. Cellular phone was a revolution. Imagine what a smart phone now would mean to them! They had hope for the future.They envisioned their children leading better lives than theirs. I ‘envy’  the ‘hope’ they had. I cannot visualize a better future for next generations. I can only see the deteriorating effects of getting used to technology happening much sooner. All I can think about is, a worsened lifestyle and an ascending dependency on technology.

I ‘envy’ my parents when they can still make calculations in their head, while I reach out for the calculator on my ‘smart’ phone in spite of being an engineer. I ‘envy’ my dad, when he looks around and buys a book he is interested in, while I google for a ‘pdf’ version. I ‘envy’ the fact that healthy lifestyle and cooking came naturally to them, unlike me who needs to watch YouTube and browse the internet for the same.

I ‘envy’ the old-fashioned way of parents teaching children to write with pen on paper, rather than typing on an iPad. I ‘envy’ the way they looked up to technology, because now I blame it for my problems.

I’m not looking forward to experience virtual reality in order to ‘feel’ my children in the future. Because it ain’t cool to me anymore!

Daily Prompt– Envy