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Restrict communication to live a healthy life
The article, “How to survive the age of distraction”
(July 9), rightly talks about the distractions one has to overcome while reading a book. With the advent of IT, communication has changed considerably in the last few years. As is already known, an individual begins the day with intrapersonal communication. It means he talks to himself or thinks. When we read, we are in a way doing that. The characters of a novel become part of our own intrapersonal communication process. But with email, Facebook and Twitter around, our mind is full of what in communication parlance is called ‘noise’. When there is so much ‘noise’ inside us due to distractions, real or perceived, we cannot concentrate to read, and our intrapersonal communication is hampered. Now, are we going to see the extinction of paper-books? Some experts say paper-books will invariably be replaced by e-books. This is, however, not likely to happen for the simple reason that every medium has certain characteristics that others do not have. For instance, despite the fact that books have witnessed a decline in sales, they still sell in markets. Books offer a certain comfort and relaxation even as one reads them. In e-books this is not likely to happen. The very feature of multitasking sometimes becomes a headache! No matter how many new features may be added, an e-book cannot surpass a paper-book because it is still very complex to use. One can learn to use them, but the process itself is tedious! A paper-book requires no such effort. All one needs is to open it and read. This is not to say that e-books are not useful. In fact, it is quite possible that in future, both e-books and paper-books will co-exist. The sales of books are going down because they are very expensive. As technology improves and manufacturing and printing costs go down, the prices of books will fall. This will have a favourable impact on their demand. As for distractions, they will remain as long as we allow them to impact our lives. We must have a system that allows us to use information in a way that does not disturb our peaceful living. Space and time are no longer constraints in modern communication. But the problem lies in the fact that people keep the various channels of communication open 24 hours. There is no definite time to eat, talk and sleep. The need, therefore, is to restrict our communication to a healthy limit. This will save us from unnecessary interaction with people and information overload, which seem to be the bane of modern society. DEVESH JUYAL, Chandigarh
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New government In the just concluded elections (the editorial, “First Thai woman PM”, July 11), the people of Thailand have voted in favour of democracy and rejected Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democratic Party because it was backed by the powerful military and the monarchy. Gone are the days when people could be suppressed by powerful military regimes. The people of Thailand have unequivocally expressed their faith in a party that promises to adhere to democratic principles. Military regimes cannot be trusted for the simple reason that they have no faith in and respect for democracy. In other words, in democracy people have various kinds of rights, including the right to vote. This goes against the interests of powerful regimes. Yingluck Shinawatra of Pheu Thai party has taken oath as the country’s new Prime Minister. But she knows that the political situation in the country is such that it will be right to include a few like-minded parties and form a coalition government. She has chosen the path of national reconciliation in view of last year’s disturbances in which 90 people had lost their lives. The ordinary Thais had expressed their disenchantment against the ruling party in a strong manner. Now, the voters chose to assert themselves by showing their disapproval of the nexus between the Democratic Party, the military and the Thai King. This can be seen in the election results. But the important point is that the Thais have voted for the restoration of democratic values in the country. The mandate is unambiguous. Yingluck Shinawatra will do well to know that if she fails to deliver, she will also be removed. I agree with the editorial that former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is the brother of Yingluck, should stay away from active politics. This will be in the interest of the whole country. As the editorial rightly says, “Even if he (Thaksin Shinawatra) is back to Bangkok, he should keep himself away from the corridors of power so that the military does not find a pretext to destabilise the Yingluck government.” KAMALDEEP SINGH, Jalandhar Unwelcome guests The middle “Summer Guests”, published on July 8, was very apt and timely. It is summer time and indeed very hot. It is the time when no one wants to entertain guests. Almost every family has its own vacation schedule, and if any unwelcome guest drops in, he just spoils the programme. PITAMBER YADAV, The Lawrence School, Sanawar
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