I always thought my granddad’s stories were fascinating. I mean who wouldn’t. Every Time our grandparents told us tales of a world we can never imagine, we would be awestruck. “Really grandpa? How did you live comfortably with 5 rupees? Had you to write letters cos you had no phones and landlines? And You had to send telegrams? What’s a landline? And WTF is a telegram?”. I couldn’t fathom living in a world like that.Jurassic Park seems more plausible than the world with no phones.
For our grandparents to lose touch with what’s happening around them, for the times to change so dramatically, it took at least 50–70 years. I always thought I was immune to the changes. I would never lose touch with the world and technology.I’m a millennial in the Facebook & Snapchat era. Yet, in the past few days, I have been reminded that, even though I’m still in my 20s, I’m already living in a very different world than the one I grew up in.
I never thought I would start a sentence like this, but here it goes. Back in the day, people had the decency to ask for money. Like a gentleman. Now kids don’t want your money, but they want you to visit their shitty blog to increase their traffic so they can make money through Google AdSense. Back in the day, people would perform for you before asking for contributions. Now you have to watch them on Youtube subscribe to them and share their shitty videos. If that’s not enough, you have to click and view the ads just so they can make some money. Nobody wants to borrow my phone anymore. Instead, they want me to transfer call credits. Nobody wants a drop. Instead, they want me to call an Uber and pay for it. They want my airline miles, my credit card points, my shopping coupon codes and gift vouchers.
Thus, is the age of digital begging.When will this stop? I don’t know. I never thought I’d say this but please just take my money and leave me alone.
Kaushal Sadashiv 