Information age and communication overload

Sometimes I feel I have become a celebrity without having done anything for the honors. People chase me—call me on the landline, ring up on the mobile, write emails, send WhatsApp messages and even unleash a flurry of SMSes. I mention SMSes also because people tell me this mode of communication is becoming archaic.

Insurance companies pray for my health and wellbeing. They send me tips on how to protect myself from Covid, what to do during common cold, precautions to take during weather change and the exercises one should do when in the 40s. Companies also tell me how keeping pets can make me happier and how growing plants can keep me in harmony with nature.

The insurance companies drop emails for no particular reason. They also send emails about their new products (insurance plans, investment plans, market-linked plans, non-market linked plans and many others) and keep me informed about their new Twitter, Facebook, Instagram accounts. They tell me about inaugurating new offices, shifting to new addresses and closing down the previous ones.

Besides all of this, they also send me two emails to remind me about my premium, one email for the acknowledgement of the premium I have paid and one more email to send me a receipt. To receive just these four useful emails, I have to delete at least 36 other useless emails. Did I mention birthday wishes, New Year greetings, Diwali wishes, Holi greetings, Eid and Christmas wishes?

Fortunately, I have just two insurances—a medical one and a regular one. So you can double the above mentioned emails that I delete without even casting a second glance at them.

Education companies ring me up and verify my name. They verify my children’s names. Then they proceed to check my email and also the phone number, the same one on which they have called me. They also want to know which classes are my children studying in and how they are faring in their studies. They also want to know the wife’s/husband’s name. Some of the tele-callers are so adept at speaking that they do not waste time on taking a breath. They do not let me take a breather either. Once they have finished with the verification process, they proceed to announce that they have a way of coaching which is internationally verified and can turn the child into a genius.

With children at home who are perpetual rebels and opinionated, I am more than happy if they just read a story book, water the plants, put manure in the pots, run downstairs to fetch the new sanitizer bottle from the car, fill up water bottles from the water filter, answer the doorbell for the press-walla, the waste collector, the maid, the delivery man, the courier boy, the e-tailer delivery agent, the milkman and so on.

So, at the cost of living with geniuses under the same roof, I am equally happy if the children purr with the cats, feed stray dogs, play badminton, go cycling, do skating inside the house or run out to meet up friends – yes, even during Covid times. Am happy to not living with geniuses but prefer children who work.

Back to the companies and tele-marketers. Then there are other messages that make me feel important.

I get loads of messages from property dealers telling me that they have a ‘confirmed buyer’ for my property. Others go to the extent of saying that a buyer is waiting for me with cash in hand. There are other equally obliging estate agents who ring up to tell me the address of my property and add that they have a tenant for it. I also get SMSes, informing me that a new real estate developer is giving a TV set free of cost if we buy his three-bedroom luxury flat or that they are providing approved farm land in the clean green British countryside. The good thing is that I don't need to have to visit the UK or even have a passport. I only need to have the money and they will do the rest for me.

Before you get any ideas, I should mention that I do not know personally any of the above. I would also like to highlight that I have not called them either.

Then there are banks who tell me that I have been approved for a bank loan. If I have time at hand, which is not often, I ask them if I am required to repay the loan. They politely ignore the question and inform me that with their loan— I can repay an existing loan, buy a property, maybe a car and so on. After listening to them patiently, I tell them that I am looking for work these days. This delightful sentence quickly ends our animated conversation.

I also get phone calls offering annual maintenance contracts for the water filter; SMSes for massage services; meeting singles in the neighborhood; WhatsApp messages for dining-out; discounts on brands; stores telling me how elegant their new winter/summer/fall/festive/spring/monsoon collection is; SMSes for getting admission to top medical colleges after failing entrance exams or getting admission abroad even with low marks.

Companies are going berserk with unnecessary and over-communication. The smaller businesses are picking up their tele-marketing ideas. And, so are the scamsters – phishing, scamming and cyber-frauds. On my part I keep refusing to part with my mobile number, the home address, the email address, the all-important Aadhar number and so much more personal information that companies, brands and shop-keepers are trying to wriggle me out off.

This age of information and communication has become an age of nuisance. In the good old time one had nosey neighbors, now you have nosey companies, government and brands too..