The dimensions of the four simultaneous revolutions — Internet, information, communications and social media — sweeping the world are mind-boggling: More than two billion are on the Internet with about 200 million Web sites and blogs, five billion on mobile/smart phones, close to one billion on the Facebook and 190 million on Twitter.

The revealing fact is that these are no longer the haunts of only the teen, or slightly above the teen, generation. They have been invaded by the middle-aged as well as, hold your breath, by the elderly who are becoming not only more savvy, but also more addicted. As per some studies, two-thirds of all American adults use social-networking sites, and 42 per cent of Americans over age 50 are hooked on to social media.

Terminologies such as “internet widows”, have come into vogue, denoting wives left to fend for themselves while the husbands rush the first thing in the morning to the PCs to look at emails and surf the Net, and camp there till they hit the sack at night.

I heard a wag remark that because of mobile phone users having their palms constantly on their ears, within a few years, following Charles Darwin's Law of Natural Selection, there will be a mutation of genes and future babies will be borne with one or the other of their tiny palms on their ears, requiring a radical rewriting of textbooks on gynecology!

These developments have thrown up some paradoxes as well. On one plane, the four simultaneous revolutions which had given birth to one kind of www (world wide web) are now leading humankind to another kind of www (world without walls).

All barriers of nationality, geographical location, time and distance have been demolished and everyone is in touch with everyone else through a whole cornucopia of contrivances such as Skype, Magicjack, videocam and the like.

FOOL-PROOF

You don't even have to take the trouble of physically typing or pressing any buttons. You can speak into the contraption, and while you speak, it helpfully displays the words you are looking for. A gentle tap on the Touchscreen or dragging the icons here and there completes the transaction. It is all absolutely effortless and fool-proof.

Virtually the whole world is connected without any thought of distinction of religion, caste or creed.

Or is it? And there lurks the first paradox. I said “virtually” which means there are still those left out in the cold of the digital void. They are the new have-nots, envious and resentful at not having access to the gleaming devices in everybody's homes and palms.

SHEER AGONY

Even the haves are becoming a prey to class distinctions. They are getting parcelled into several categories: Those who have the “bestest, mostest and priciest” brands boasting hundreds of features facilitating thousands of functions; those splintered into as many communities as there are models with a multitude of specifications, all undecipherable, making no sense even to the geeks; and those making do with devices having nothing more than the basics. This last stratum of owners is, naturally, consumed by inferiority complex and a sense of alienation.

The paradox doesn't stop there. Even in respect of the so-called social media, which, seemingly, provide universal access, all netizens are not equal, or, if they are, some are more equal than others.

For one thing, there is the tendency of birds of the same feather flocking together, since commingling across vocational, gender and age disparities is attendant with acute discomfort.

For another, in the case of the Twitterati, for instance, I cannot describe to you the sheer agony of seeing some attracting thousands of followers while one's own follower-count is zero. Of course, the twitter-buff has no words to describe his joy when suddenly he sees on the screen the intimation that someone wants to follow him! He never stops to find out how dumb he is to do so!

All told, what the four revolutions have done is to make us feel unequal in the midst of supposed equals.

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