Polarised Social Milieu and the Rise of Stray Violence

We live in a world splintered into special interest groups and secret cabals of interested people. We don't know what's happening in the neighbour's house but we know what our friend had for dinner and what he/she is wearing (courtesy: Facebook, Twitter). "Had dinner," "slept a little," "am having coffee," aren't these the sort of things our friends tweet and facebook? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I am not an expert on social impact of social media so I wouldn't hazard a guess.

 

But, yes, we are a splintered and multi-layered group of people. The train is full of people engrossed in their gadgets to even look at neighbours. What happened to train friendships? I am good friends with my train friends of the nineties when we used to meet every morning on a fixed train schedule and spend the time chatting and exchanging information. Now they have gravitated into different orbits and at the most are nodding acquaintances. These days the boys don't chat, they are either listening to pirated music or engrossed in some movie or game on their mobile phone. Sometimes I wonder where these people come from.

 

Another alarming trend. We socialise with our work colleagues than our friends. A friend once remarked that our schoolmates made bad friends because we don't have much in common with them. What he covertly meant was that we should be friends with the people we work with, or, with people we do business with. I was taught that this is a wrong thing. At work we should be professionals working with other professionals, not friends. A company can make an enemy of a friend with consummate ease. How does one avoid a sense of betrayal at the workplace? Doesn't socialising in the workplace lead to rumour mongering and gossip? 

Are we turning apathetic and violent?

Is it any wonder that when a man was killed in Coimbatore in full view of public, no one came to his rescue. This one's a video showing the gruesome incident. In Bombay a man stabbed his girlfriend in full view of the public but no one bothered to intervene. The man was given a life sentence recently. Yes, they took pictures, but nobody did anything to help. Both died without any help. 

I am @johnwriter on Twitter and John.Matthew on Facebook. I blog here.