The symptoms of “ Lost in the flood” syndrome became apparent recently in Chennai when people, particularly the middle-aged and teenagers, moved out to safer places after floods in their streets. A few days of heavy downpour and floods in the Chennai rivers seemed to threaten their continuance in their usual habitat with all the gadgets and connectivity in order. The word “seemed” has been used carefully to denote the geeks whose houses were not submerged but only saw a sheet of water on the road and feared Internet alienation or mobile connectivity loss.
The first precaution they took was to carry laptop, mobile phones and accessories with minimal bags of clothes, call up their close friends or relatives to see if they were safe and were willing to host them. The description they gave about the situation in their neighbourhood was so frightening that they got the immediate go-ahead.
The geeks clearly needed to see what was happening around them and use their gadgets effectively to be the first to update their friends with impressions and images. Thus on their way to the safe location they took a number of photos and searched for stable Internet connectivity. A day after the downpour the networks failed our netizens who could not talk to friends or send SMSes.
Apart from showing a genuine concern for others’ safety, a few indulged in browsing or messaging to inform friends about their whereabouts, to show they were the better informed. The urge to call somebody or anybody was first to convey that they had managed to escape and perch themselves in a safe place. There were hours of delay in achieving this mission in several places. When a particular network failed, the user changed the connection to a pre-paid one they had but not used so often, or switched to a difference service provider to get an immediate connection. A few intelligent persons called up their relatives in Bengaluru on the available landline to top-up the prepaid connection so that they could start browsing then and there. Here, too, they had to wait till midnight when the network connection came through. Hurrah! They started carefully checking and sending messages or sifting through Facebook posts for images/updates. All to exhibit their competence at staying alive and active in the calamity-struck metro.
This frenzied behaviour on the Net reminded me of an essay in my PUC class in the sixties which discussed how people gathered on a busy London street when there was an inferno in a church, not to try to put out the blaze but to see how the tongues of flames leapt into the sky.
Once the mobile connection was available, the folks who imagined that they were lost in the floods, unconnected with the world of FB friends, started trying mobile number one by one. When they managed to reach someone, they reeled out details of their ordeal, mostly exaggerated, perhaps because the subconscious mind tempted them to show themselves off as heroes or heroines who emerged unscathed because of their native wisdom. Whatever information they gathered from such calls, or Internet connectivity, was scrupulously passed on to others they reached afterwards.
As the news about the die-hard callers spread, others in their friends’ circle called. Elaborate accounts, endlessly repeated, followed these calls. After each conversation ended, the geeks chose to brief, in detail, everyone around them about the plight of their friends. There was no sign of fatigue or boredom.
This extraordinary online obsession is what I call “Lost in the flood” syndrome that needs to be analysed so that the patients are properly counselled and treated. So much of their time and energy could have been otherwise utilised instead of loading everyone with information that came in bits and pieces. Another feature of the afflicted was that they preferred to rely on social media posts or SMS messages rather then telecasts of TV channels which they dismissed as old, slanted or sickeningly repetitive.
The mobile was, of course, a useful device to inform others in their groups that they were safe and send particulars of the needs of those in distress. When the feared scenarios overtook reality, it caused a lot of exaggeration and led to rumours and needless panic. The use, misuse and overuse of technology, unavailable when parts of Tamil Nadu witness the horrors of the tsunami a decade ago, became clear this time and warned me about the need to be rational, poised and cautious at all ways and in all ways.
This article is not to be misconstrued as a wholesale damnation of efforts to reach kith and kin when the immediate surroundings witnessed abnormal phenomena. It is an exhortation to those who have the latest technology to be prudent, judicious and cautious. Of course, social media sites were useful in passing on vital information and exchanging particulars about those in trouble and carrying out assistance and rescue work on time. Anything in excess is dangerous and there is need for moderation. swamynathan55@gmail.com