The machine language !

I imagined seeing a face,  two eyes and a forehead in this cloud, which was surrounded by darkened clouds.  What caught my attention was the dark cloud fast approaching to cover the white cloud in the middle.  

When I visited the Ophthalmologist three months ago, I was asked if I spend a lot of time before the computer! May be, because of dryness in the eyes, for which I was using moisturising drops. 

That triggered a search and question within me. Having been engaged in composing a few books in the last eighteen months, the  time I spend keying into the lap top might have exceeded six hours of each day. 

I decided to make an enquiry about the average time a working medical professional spends before the computer. I enquired this from as many medical professionals I feel comfortable to ask, just crossed fifty since I began it two months ago. 

I was in for a surprise. Those medical professionals who use electronic medical records for transacting details of patients, radiologists, surgeons who use video assisted procedures or robotics, and those engaged in research work were those who spend eight or more hours before the active screen. 

It was the subsequent question which gave me something to be  concerned about. Those who needed intensity of attention at work for having to be precise and sharp, relaxed watching entertainments or sports or video games in the television or mobile phone for two or three hours in the night !

To those with whom I felt comfortable enough, I enquired if this reduced the family time of conversations between spouses or with children. 

That alarmed me. there were twenty, who mentioned it to be a concern they are struggling with. 

A psychiatrist mentioned to me that when one spends longer hours before the computer a state of fatigue sets in, which reduces the interest to be sociable, communicative or interactive. The 'machine language' replaces the relational  'social language'. 

The machine language is informational, transactional and task oriented. 

The social language is listening, feeling, processing, responding and relational! 

Now that we added applications of the Artificial Intelligence to the machine language, I fear that we would come across further challenges  relationally in our home environment ! 

A child of nine years requested me privately to ask his parents to reduce their TV viewing time in the evening to make time for playing indoor games. Both parents are doctors who seek to relax by watching some entertainment after supper!

I understand that since the COVID pandemic, the time spent with computing has increased with children and parents. 

The dark clouds are around us!

The machine language would become even more engaging and would be considered normal. 

The social language which creates relational engagements would suffer further loss !

The semblance of the cloud in the centre, of a human face surrounded by dark clouds, became a symbol to me of the risk of the machine language further marginalising the social language that connects human hearts!

A family told me that they used to play board games or card games or go to the park close by three to four times a week. Now it does not happen regularly! Their seven years old child does every form of mischief when the parents settle down before the TV after supper and ask the  children to go to bed on their own!

I have been used to recommending parents to avoid using the mobile phone or the TV to occupy children till they are three years of age. This was to facilitate the development of social language. 

Now adults too need reminders to use the art and gift of social language to promote relational and heart level communication!

The principal of a college mentioned to me that there are break down of communications, use of aggressive language, impulsive responses to trivial inconveniences, and tense communication style, all of which seem to be recent among doctors in mid life. That raises another reason to suspect that the nature and style of social language is changing !

It is the social language of upbuilding function, that brings an ambience of comfort at our work place!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)