Quote by Tapan Ghosh: Only when you connect with yourself do you interact with the beyond. Man has always been a social animal. We go through our lives, in constant contact with people around us. We seek companionship all the time. In fact, we are afraid to be alone. We seek security in numbers – be it groups, organisations, political affiliations, ideologies, religion, nations or trade and military blocs.

The growth of social media has been both, a cause and a result of this desire to stay connected. As a result, there are immense demands on the need to get things done faster and more efficiently.

This desire has now assumed obsessive proportions. We are always connected. We fear that we may miss or lose out on something if we detach ourselves even for a while.

The downside of Social Media

Social media has also driven us to broadcast ourselves all the time. It has become a platform for self-advertisement. It is a channel for expressing our opinions, a ramp to preen and a pulpit to run others down. We always seem to be in confrontational mode. This aggression carries over into our personal and professional lives as well.

All this has come at a great cost to our emotional and spiritual well-being. We seem to be living in the here and now, constantly in reactive mode. We now shirk personal interaction, seeking false comfort in being connected with an ever-growing network of friends and followers.

Losing touch with our own selves

At a deeper level, we have stopped communicating with our own selves.  The bright lights of the physical world have blinded us to the universe that exists within each of us. A universe of reflection and introspection that nurtures and strengthens us from within. A state of mind that can help us regain the balance we seem to have lost. We live in the hope of seeking these very treasures through means that are virtual, shallow and fleeting.

Only when we start speaking to ourselves can we hope to connect with the beyond. Rise above the here and now, the mundane, the trivial and the insignificant. And transcend space and time.