Mostly Tweetless

I have always been an information and trivia junkie and was an avid quizzer, so used to read magazines, newspapers and then blogs and various websites  and eventually social media to get regular feed of information.  Blogs and Social media just made it lot more convenient, and with a smart phone it was even easier consume all this information. 7 years back I started using twitter slowly over web and also on phone. After moving to  US with much better wifi access and 4G/LTE availability it became really easy to use twitter on phone. It was a treasure trove of information, insight and it was such a fun place initially. conventional media folks and opinion makers were less active. Of course it depends of the people you follow and the conversations they have but initially to me it appeared to be a gentler place with good meaningful conversations, lot of puns and certainly lot of fun. All sorts of topics were covered but it seemed more like extension of the world of blogging. Twitter replaced quickly replaced Facebook for me. Another big plus was people were polite and civil and respected others and courteous in interactions and totally cool guys you admired for their wit, knowledge or their ability to articulate their views and engage in good meaningful debates/discussions. I think I learnt a lot and got exposed to so many ideas and learnt a lot. Then twitter started getting more and more popular and slowly things changed

Lot of celebrities took to twitter with gusto and most journalists also joined in actively, followed by politicians and their followers and almost anyone who is someone. World over major events started getting covered well on twitter with news articles and opinion and discussions. Everyone famous was using twitter to reach out quickly to a huge audience. It totally replaced the newspaper and 'news' programs on TV to get my daily fix of latest news. My  Twitter TL was my window to the world and it was always accessible and fitted on my palm (almost). Even though I live in US, majority of my twitter feed was India based or events related to India. So twitter became source for my India news and helped me stay connected to the country and the latest trends and at the same time US and global news as well.

Somewhere around that time lot of things changed, as more and more people joined the quality of discourse dropped as well. From seeking and sharing interesting information, it moved to a platform for spreading and sharing information and setting or controlling opinion.  It became a mixture of facts ,opinion, interpretation and the line or difference between both blurred totally. The pull this medium exerts and its appeal is tremendous, I would put it down to combination of how easy it is to voice your viewpoint and no controls or checks and lack of consequence. Trolling and hatred became more common and widespread. Lines were drawn and folks were labelled quickly and people divided themselves into camps. It was like the sorting hat from Harry Potter universe suddenly appeared and divided everyone into clear groups. Instead of meaningful conversation or discussion, trolling, bullying and mob culture took over. Slowly I realized that I had also fallen down the rabbit hole. There was outrage every other day over something or other which no one will remember within a few months and I found myself joining them. This was like those reality shows, with constant fights which no one would even remember later but viewers turn up all the same.  It took some time to realize and gradually I think I learnt to come out the 'outrage' trap. Every one had 'expert' opinion on most topics which was ok but they also expected you to agree that what they state is correct and on the other side folks who do not agree not only disagree but display total hatred and anger not just at the opinion but at the person who shared the opinion and anyone who agrees to that opinion. The whole world was getting viewed as black or white and there was absence of nuance or consideration of other view points. I was searching for an apt metaphor or quote to capture this and I found one yesterday in one of the lectures I was listening to in a different context. But it easily applies for all the twitter conversations as well. People use statistics/data just like a drunk uses lamp post, for support rather than illumination

I had a conversation with a cousin about how addictive twitter  was and how crazy it has been and we both agreed that pruning the list of folks we follow and trying to keep controversial things like politics will help.  Clearly this was no longer the place for me to relax, get information about what was happening around me and get information to improve myself. None of that was happening as most of it was 'shout-fest' or people with extreme opinions. Also it seemed like someone was out there slipping some outrage worthy topics on regular basis and folks just go bat-shit crazy over them and real questions are never come up. Things that really matter and hard conversations never come up. Sure there was good stuff but the hatred and outrage was overwhelming and crowding out the good stuff. Sometime in January 2017, I un-followed lot of folks and also decided to cut the time I spend on twitter. Decided to check it only in the mornings just like how I used to read newspapers back in the days when I used to get daily newspapers and another 30 mins as I hit the bed at night. This arrangement seem to work and during the day the spare time available was channeled to other productive pursuits like reading and studying something useful on Coursera.

After 3 months I realized it did help and I was no longer addicted to twitter and could even contemplate totally leaving it. I did read a lot of books, could finish books at twice the usual speed taken in last 3-4 years. Was able to devote more time for family and successfully completed my first course certificate on coursera. Again exiting twitter or social media totally  was never the aim. I do believe this is a very useful medium and you can learn a lot of useful stuff to improve your life as well. Over last 7 years I think my life has benefited a lot from all the information I gleamed off the platform. But fitting it into daily life was a challenge and this way it seemed to be working. Still I did have this question on how would it be if I totally went off social media for a week, just to see if it really matters that much? I could never know because it was impossible for me to resist checking Twitter or even FB during mornings on my phone last 3 months.

And then it happened ... just like that the twitter app on my phone asked me for password. I just did not remember and after couple of failed attempt decided this was a chance for me to take a break from twitter. It has been 5 days now and as of now I don't think I missed anything I have been sleeping okay and this whole week have gone for my morning walk/run without fail. Have also been able to focus enough to update this blog a few times. So hoping to extend this break from all social media (except whatsapp) for another 10 days just to see what happens ...

Update: The break did not extend as long as planned, I got my twitter password issue fixed on 19th, so at least I was out for about 10 days overall. I could get by for while without twitter, but as a side-effect I started using facebook on a daily basis. I used to check FB just once in a couple of months and last 1 week I used that twitter alternative as similar stuff is going there as well with people ranting for and against in various issues. The quality of discussions is much lower than twitter. So eventually I think getting back to twitter is better. But I did un-follow a lot of folks - removed 60 and added a few tech folks who tweet about things of interest to me. Decided not to engage at all on political topics, not because it does not matter. More so because this kind of debates don't interest me any longer as it is reduced to brawls, cheap point scoring, always finding faults and making snide remarks about those whose views/actions you don't agree. Its a good representation of the reality no doubt but for now I will let it go. So aim is to follow and engage with more meaningful topics and lets see if this approach makes any difference

Balakrishnan Sir and the Computer Class

I currently work in Digital product marketing/sales area and through out  my career I have been in IT related jobs. My generation grew up with technology which appeared out of nowhere and became ubiquitous. During the last 10 years things have moved at a rapid pace with ever increasing availability of computing power and internet through laptops, smartphone, tablets  into hands of a wide majority of population, more and more adoption of gadgets and these social media apps. For kids these days it must be impossible to imagine a world without internet, mobile phones and computers. But 25 years ago that's how the world was at least in the India I grew up in. Kids my age had a faint idea about computers and no one had any inkling of what is was for and let alone the world it could create

I'm reminded of an incident related to our first brush with computers around 25 years back in my Upper Primary school ( Middle school) in a small city in Kerala. My school was a Govt Aided Private school, so considered a good one in that area but was nowhere among top schools of the city. It was run by a private trust and charged only modest fees and so were the facilities. School to be honest did not really look like a school from outside, it had a large and long courtyard with lot of coconut trees leading up to a typical Kerala style tiled house with multiple levels. First building had 3-4 classrooms for class 5.Then right behind the main house was lot of space which doubled as another playground and then there was another tile roofed structure which was also a ramshackle building like the one in front and this one also had a few classrooms for Class 6. Then right next to it there was a 'proper' concrete building which looked nothing like all other buildings in that compound and was really neat and modern and it housed classrooms for 7th standard , staff room and headmaster's cabin.There was no proper playground but as it was a sprawling compound, there was enough space for kids to play as many as 4-5 cricket/football matches in that whole area. That was a typical school in small town attended by middle class/ lower middle class kids

All our teachers were ladies which was typical for most schools except for the headmaster. The Headmaster (HM) did not teach us any classes but gave us lot of advice during weekly morning school assembly. Another memory of the HM is that he hated kids playing during lunch break, maybe the problem was more with the noise couple of hundred kids talking, shouting and playing in a yard would produce. Once in a while HM will step out during lunch hour and ask folks to stop playing and making noise and go back to classes ( ya right, like we would). But sometimes HM would lose his head and will fly into rage when the warnings gets ignored and venture out with a cane and this time he meant business he will do a full round of the school yard and anyone who does not run away (which kids of that age do very well) would get proper thrashing. When we were in Class 6, the English teacher quit and for week or two other teachers would get assigned to cover other stuff or it was just a free period. A class full of 11 year olds cannot be expected to sit silently and usually a substitute teacher would invite some 'talented' folks to come up and sing a Bollywood number or dance to one or anything to keep the class occupied. It went on like this for a few days and the English period was something we looked forward to.

Then one day HM turned up with another old man who was wearing a white shirt and dhoti ( Mundu in Malayalam) and this new person was introduced as Balakrishnan sir the new English teacher. We were told that Balakrishnan sir ( BS) was a retired teacher from a Govt school and had been teaching for more than 30 years and we are lucky to get an experienced teacher like him. We usually had lady teachers in early 20s as teaching in schools like this would be their first assignment before they move away into more secure Govt jobs or something better. So this was a different experience and everyone started liking his classes as well as he used teach well and like any 60 year old person he would add several stories/anecdotes of his own experiences. So it was fun initially attending his classes, we were spell bound kids listening to his well narrated yarns.

But like any senior citizen, while he could regale us with various tales and anecdotes, he would also not keep track of whether the incident he is narrating has already been narrated. Once the stories started getting repetitive kids also started murmuring and the attitude changed, the spell was sort of broken. But he did teach us well though he could never complete the entire syllabus on time as lot of time was spent talking about various other things. This meant attending extra/special class in evenings or during weekends towards end of year in the race to complete all lessons before final exams. That was something no one liked!

Next year we had a surprise in store for us, they had started building some additional space for some time now and at the start of year we were told that we are now having a computer lab and that we will have computer class as one of the subjects this year. It was only one or two of periods in a week but this early 90s none us even had seen a computer before and had only heard vaguely about it. This was an era of only Doordarshan channel on TV, occasional audio and video cassettes for entertainment and playing or games meant running around or cricket or football outside. Video game meant those rented consoles connected to TV or the handheld brick game. So this was huge for kids in small town from middle class families and something uncharacteristic for the school really. The computer was kept in an air-conditioned room which was kept dust-free. We had to take off our shoes before entering the lab. Initially we had some theory classes on computer and but were promised that we would  after some time be allowed to touch and even use the computer soon in groups and that was something we were all looking forward to. But being in that AC room with a wonder gadget from future was exciting enough

Then one day BS announced that this year we will avoid having additional classes to wrap up our portion before exams. That was something everyone liked to hear, but he was not done yet. He also added that we he will use the computer hour as well to cover his English lessons. For the board examination after 3 years only  the main subjects mattered and English was one of them computer science clearly was not, so that settled it as per him. We were told that arrangement is purely to help us but that ended that dream of computer classes and getting to see and operate a computer. Nobody dared to question a teacher's authority or wisdom and especially someone formidable like him and that seemed to be the end of computer class for us that year. Voicing our opinion or disagreement to a teach was unusual, so we had to bear with it...

...Until some boys started talking about after a few weeks, it was agreed that computer was a wonderful thing even though none of us knew anything about it or why it mattered. It must have seemed way cooler and more fun than those extra English lessons and a few boys went to meet the 'computer miss' to appraise her about this and appealed to her to restore these classes. She seemed to be in bigger dilemma, she could not confront a senior teacher who was close to  headmaster, at the same time she could not sit idle for a long time as lot of her teaching hours were taken over in this arrangement so perhaps the prospect of job loss loomed as well for her. She asked us to go check with HM and tell him what was happening as she cannot do it herself because she did not want to be disrespectful to BS

Prospect of meeting HM was not very enticing given that first thing that sprang to our mind was him chasing folks with a long cane. So that was ruled out and we sat through the extra English classes with sullen faces. I don't remember how it happened but eventually the murmuring changed to rumbling and it got louder and louder and eventually most of class was convinced this won't do. The plan was that we must just head to computer lab without waiting for BS to come to class. But planning was one execution was totally another ball game.

The situation sort of reminds me about the great spectacle in Masai Mara National Reserve in Tanzania and Kenya. There is this annual seasonal migration of wildebeest and zebra herds across the reserve as season changes. The animals migrate across the region following their food sources and the highlight is a part called 'Mara River Crossing'. Millions of animals need to cross Mara river, which happens at place where river itself is not particularly challenging. But the challenge is posed by dozens of crocodiles waiting to grab stragglers. This happens every year and animals clearly seem to know the danger that lies ahead but also know its in their best interest to cross the stream however dangerous it maybe. Wildebeests and Zebras start gathering in huge numbers until there is some critical point at which they all decide to make a dash across the river. In sight of clear and obvious danger the animals wait for a while and bide their time and then just like that they take the plunge because to move forward is a must to survive eventually and that is something hard wired inside them.

Just like those wildebeests, I'm not sure how we got courage or what was the tipping factor but  maybe somewhere within our heads we all knew this was important and it mattered. But even now I cannot think of how and why we thought that way. Long story short, BS was late for that particular forced English class, some folks finally got up and decided this was the best chance as we can pretend he is not coming and more folks agreed and joined and eventually the entire class decided to make a run for it and quickly went to the Computer Lab and settled in. Computer miss was delighted at normalcy being restored and even offered to put in a word to HM about this so that we are safe. But none of us were sure how it will turn  out. BS was certainly not amused the next day when he came to our class. He made it clear that he was disappointed with us and explained that what he did was for our benefit. Learning English well was more important as class 10 school leaving exam only has English as a subject and not computer. He was of the view that there is nothing major to be gained with this so called computer class for kids like us. That time can be better utilized for other subjects and he felt kids in this school had no use for something like this. He added that most of us will not even see let alone use a computer as live in India and not America or Britain. Sure some bright kids will finish school and college well and do higher studies where computers will be used for research and stuff he added.  He added that it was good on school management to introduce new things, but for folks who will be  in high school next year focus should turn more into core subjects which matter for the class 10 board exam which is the real deal . He seemed quite certain about this whole computer thing and made it amply clear that we were silly to waste time with computer class when we were running out of time to cover our lessons properly. With that he picked up the English textbook and continued as usual. All of us were relieved that we did not get punished as some folks feared, unknowingly we had made a statement for technology perhaps. We did get our computer class every week after that and we moved on cleared that school attended bigger ones, college and so on

Interestingly I never really learnt computers formally in school after that as I switched schools next year and the new school did not even have that as a subject. In college I studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering but strangely we did not have any computer exposure. Still around 10 years after incident I mentioned after I finished my college, my first job was as a software programmer. Things had changed very quickly in India by the time I was in college the most desired jobs were in IT sector and it did give a wonderful opportunity and ability to earn well and interact with folks across the world. But even as I embarked on this career in early 2000s, at least in the initial years I met my fair share of skeptics everywhere who were not impressed by IT industry or computers. One was my college lecturer and another was a family friend who was in big corporate job, they both shared exactly same sentiment about this nascent IT industry when I told them about landing my first job. They mentioned they were happy to hear I got a job in nice and well known IT company paying decent money, but hoped I will not just stay with an IT company but will try hard and get into some proper 'old world' engineering related jobs as IT sector and jobs might not last too long!

Now in 2017, I see technology mostly via smartphone omnipresent in all walks of life. People book train/flight tickets, taxis, order books, food or just about anything online, they find marriage partners, get new degree , watch new movies online. Technology companies have created more and more jobs and are going strong both globally and especially in India. There are frequent hiccups and challenges, but it is here to stay. It is estimated that IT & ITES industry employs around 10 million people in India and is believed to contribute close to 10% of India's GDP. Globally this is referred to as digital era, with Information technology companies leading charge into everything and are doing so well that the tech titans - Google, Amazon, Apple, MS and Facebook are the most valuable listed firms in the world. In fact a recent article I read mentioned that several factories in US now require workers to have gone to college as computer knowledge is a must even for factory jobs. As we gradually adopt automation and AI this is going to be more common everywhere.

The point of this post is not to mock or blame my good old English teacher or my lecturer  or anyone else who was either skeptical or did not take computers and internet seriously. Old world skills like language, basic sciences, arithmetic are still extremely important, but computer science and applied technology got adopted and grew at unbelievable pace. I don't think any of us even today can comprehend how massively big and transformative this is and how much computers, internet and smartphones have changed the way we live. I'm sure my teachers as well as those skeptics had the best interests of their students or whoever they were advising in mind when they said that.

Quarter of a century is a long time indeed and the world around us has changed and how!