Happy day #5

Today I give myself a little learning space and take myself to seminar about innovation and the future technology. It is a good opportunity to meet up with many interesting people and they shared a lot of insights about the new ideas and ways to innovate.

What catches my attention most is the way we connect with each other and the way we keep connected. With all the new technology and gadgets we are connected anytime anywhere 24/7. The world is literally smaller, nearer and even reachable in many ways. Take Singapore for example, it is one of the countries with the highest penetration or take-up rate for mobile phone and internet access. Almost everyone has a phone, not just a traditional phone but many are holding smart phone. And we are in this era where we will feel very uneasy even emptiness if our mobile phone is not with us.

With me playing the devil’s advocate, I asked myself – now that we are so connected, contactable and reachable, are we now happier?

I believe many could not answer this question in a straight forward way because we can be far apart but near enough to talk or even see each other from miles away. And at the same time we are near but yet so far. Many families spend their weekend so called “together” but what actually happened was father is watching movies from computer, mother is learning cooking recipes from YouTube and kids are busy with Facebook, Twitter and other social media. It is a very common scene during family dinner gathering and everyone is busy with their phone and we called this new scene – “together loneliness”

Is this the price of modernization? While we improve our living standards, physical infrastructure, education and economic let us constantly remind ourselves to give a soft touch to the effect of this modernization. Whatever you are doing now, put it down and give your love one a bear hug and tell them you love them. That’s the secret of happiness.