Week 2 - Column

The Four Letter Word, a weekly column by Farah Ashraff

From a small dusty town of Klang, one girl strives to spread the hope that love could still be the superhero that would save this planet. For 21 years, Farah Ashraff have been observing how love is used as an armor, abused for lust and power and confused under the deceit of material desire and believes that we should all try a little harder to give love a little credit. That is exactly what she would be doing in this first article on the series of column she would like to call ‘The Four Letter Word’.

Hi-Tech Love in Low Definition

                Technology today, in this fast-paced era, is slowly taking over us. It is in almost everything we do and it has effect us to a point where most of us would not be comforted to admit how much we really rely on it. With that, whether we realize it or not, it has changed our society to become somewhat similar to technology itself. Never was there a time when we were this quick, intelligent or even lazy. Yet, the one thing that bothers me is how technology seems to be changing one of the most important human bond; relationships.

                If you have not noticed, in recent years, relationships have become increasingly similar to technology. Here are some of the examples; one of the most popular attributes of technology is that it is known to be fast-paced, it enable us to communicate, travel and work faster. We are the fastest mass production generation by far and we have never achieved so much in so little time. Relationships have also acquired an express status over the years; we hook-up fast, get into bed with each other almost instantly, and get married way too soon. After all that speed, most of us break-up or get divorce even quicker than any of our previous generations.

                The improvement of technology has enabled many gadget companies to fit as many features as they can into our gadgets. Although their aim is to satisfy our ever-growing consumerism desires so that we would choose their products over competitors, they have also unknowingly spoiled us of choices. Most of us have taken this expectation of having countless features in everything we have, including our relationships. That is why most of our relationships today consists a lot of things past generations lack. We expect our relationships to be jam-packed with features like the technology we own, causing many of us to give into things like sex before marriage, moving in together and so on even before any of us are really ready. We get ourselves involved in this with a mentality that we are living up to what is required of a relationship. Thus, we rarely restrict ourselves when it comes to relationships, which allows us less space and time to think things over.

                As companies work harder to make gadgets more user-friendly for us, we take for granted how easy things have become. Over time, technology had given us both ease and access that our forefathers could only dream of. We have come to expect more reward with less effort not only with the things we do but also with the relationships that we get involve with. People used to take months or even years to know each other before they proceed to get into something deeper. Nowadays, we get into relationships almost too easily and yet, when the going gets tough, we bail out even before putting in much effort to make things work.

                Although I still believe there are relationships that are not subconsciously imitating technology, I have to say, they are the least of my concern right now. What we should worry about is the direction that most relationships are heading towards and if technology is capable of influencing it to a point where there would no longer be enough space for love. Imagine that, relationships that are so filled with technological traits that the real essence of it; love can no longer thrive. As for now, the similarities between technology and relationships have become increasingly eerie. Although the influence in relationships may have made love sound a little more hi-tech but it may have also blurred out the true definition of it over the years.

Catch Farah again  next week as she will be discussing on how this undeniable emotion could inspire generations of musicians, artist and songwriters. Has love always been mankind's strongest muse? We'll leave you this week with the ever so famous Beatles’ song title to ponder on, "All You Need Is Love."
Until next week.