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The accessibility in communication has blurred the lines between formal and informal forms of communication. With information available to us at our fingertips, there’s an expectation to be constantly online and updated. There’s no excuse to not do so since notifications buzzing around us. However, what is the cost of information influx?

Ping. You just put your phone down and were about to take a moment to yourself to break away from the constant influx of messages and notifications. However, you just heard the high-pitched sound that itches you increasingly until you can’t control yourself and finally give in to your urges. Before you know it, the muscle memory of your fingers swiftly types your passcode, and you have finally accessed WhatsApp. No worries, though, since it was just your friend reacting to your previous text. Since you have already made an effort to open WhatsApp, you might as well casually scroll through a few unread messages. There is, however, no such thing as casual on WhatsApp, and you are now obligated to reply to those messages because you might as well do it now.

Many of us are chronically online due to the demands of accessible communication. Even subconsciously, we constantly crave stimulation because we are accustomed to how conveniently we can access information. Getting updated is considered the bare minimum in keeping up with today’s globalised world. Notifications play an important role in ensuring you are on top of all your commitments and updates. In some ways, notifications ease communication for us because we don’t have to go the extra mile to get updated. WhatsApp groups are synonymous with a college notification board as they are the only way to get crucial updates on any developments in regard to your classes and societies. Notifications are a necessity to survive the fast-paced nature of college. However, just as easily, they can become an overwhelming source of anxiety.

There are several mechanisms to reduce the impact of notifications. For most of us, it is keeping our phones on silent mode and returning to our phones at our convenience. However, since our phones are perpetually glued to us, the silent mode feature is almost redundant in shielding us from our notifications. However, you may mute your notifications which prevents notifications from even appearing on your home screen. As most of us are acquainted with, blindly muting our notifications often has repercussions on our professional and personal lives.

Turning off all my notifications hardly ever works for me. I just feel like as college students we don’t really have the luxury of just muting all our notifications because the messages that we receive from college often require our immediate attention. Even when I choose to get back to messages at a convenient to me, I’m bombarded with over 50 messages from different groups and it creates even more stress because I have to go through all those messages to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything important,” a first-year student discussed.

The first come, first serve basis is how opportunities are grasped in WhatsApp groups. Even a 30-second delay in response can lead you to lose an opportunity. This is exactly where the pressure starts to arise with notifications. There’s an inherent need to constantly be available and be the first person to take hold of such opportunities. Although showing initiation may appear to be the bare minimum form of showing commitment, over time the constant influx of messages and notifications takes a toll on your ability to respond. The continuous notifications eventually cause lethargy and you lose track of keeping up with important developments.

“I remember the first day of college when all of a sudden I was added to so many groups and in those groups there were links to other groups. Official groups, unofficial groups, opportunity groups, and students of 2025/26 groups. It was so overwhelming trying to keep up with all of it because you are new to college and you are already stressed enough and you don’t want to miss out on important updates. I remember I joined a group a few hours later, and the entire CR elections had already been conducted and I had absolutely no clue about it,” a first-year student observed.

In the interest of professional commitments, somehow personal commitments take a back seat. In the wake of keeping up with emails and WhatsApp messages, answering texts from your friends and family may seem trivial. Due to this, your personal relationships suffer as you may not actively contribute towards staying in touch due to the lethargy that accompanies meeting your professional updates.

I have all my groups from college pinned. Since there are over 25 of them, I hardly even see messages from my friends because there is always something going on in my college groups. And they are very important and if I don’t get back to them in a few hours, I’m usually tagged. It becomes so draining trying to keep up with all this that I just completely forget that I haven’t even replied to my friend who texted me 2 days ago” lamented a student.

The urgency that accompanies notifications often is fueled by an intrinsic need to be available and immediately deal with the issue. Over time, just the mere sound of a notification can cause a wave of anxiety due to the urgency it creates. They can also be very overwhelming especially when the group chats are spammed with messages that compel you to answer them immediately. In the process, you start disassociating yourself from your surroundings and remain stuck with the updates and commitments. Due to the accessibility of your presence, answering texts carve away your relaxation time and blur the boundaries between your priorities.

Especially with utilizing multiple devices, we are even more charged with notifications. Our laptops, phones, iPads and Tablets are constantly buzzing with notifications from all sorts of social media applications. Although disconnecting from the chaos of our devices is intimidating, protecting our mental peace is much more crucial. Sometimes we may miss catching up on our emails and texts but instead of feeling guilty about it, we need to assert boundaries and compartmentalize our priorities to preserve our sanity and peace.

Image Credits: Macworld

Sri Sidhvi Dindi

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The Indian Annual Symposium, saw an amalgamation of academicians, the Government, and industry leaders to illustrate the possibilities of scientific advancement.

On Thursday, 4th February 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, the Indian Annual Symposium – ‘Science and Society’- was organised by the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (LMSAI) Harvard University, in collaboration with NITI Aayog and Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The opening ceremony was graced by Mr. Tarun Khanna, Director of LMSAI. Mr. Khanna talked about bridging the gap between scientists and the society.

Following the ceremony, the first session was titled ‘Setting the Context for Science and Society’ and it was moderated by Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog. The first speaker of this session, Dr. V.K. Saraswat, Member (S&T), NITI Aayog and Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University spoke of science as an important tool for the sustainable society. He further said that science, technology, and society are a three-way road which must go together as they have the power to transform civilisation. He ended his note by urging social scientists and society leaders to take lead for converting problem areas to workable strategies and decisions, especially in the fields of agriculture and healthcare.

The next speaker of the session was Ms. Kiran Mazumdar, Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon, who talked about the areas and the ways in which India needs to improve in science and technology. She said that science should be celebrated and well-connected with the society.

Dr. K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, took the session forward by highlighting the biggest challenge faced the nation, which is the lack in inclusiveness of the three pillars of the country – government, industry, and civil society. He stated that science and technology, which is the fourth pillar of the nation, can help overcome this challenge. For that, he added, the country needs to embark upon large scale educational programmes so that the “language of science” is accessible to all. Countering Ms. Mazumdar’s example of Bangalore as a success model, Dr. Raghavan called the success essentially “an accident.” Thus, according to him, there’s a need to be little more active if we were to replicate the same success in multiple places.

Mr. Amitabh Kant ended the session by voicing the need of massive investments in science and technology for the development of India.

The second session of the Symposium was to highlight the ‘Technological Advancements in Agriculture,’ moderated by Mr. Manoj Kumar, Senior Advisor and Head – Innovation, Tata Trusts.

Dr. Shannon Olsson, Associate Professor, Naturalist-Inspired Chemical Ecology, National Centre for Biological Sciences, talked about the challenges faced by agriculture in India. She highlighted the need for India to have a better handle of its diversity and to focus on adapting sustainable technology. According to her, the ecological regions in the country need to be identified and awareness must be increased among the people.

Mr. Amitabh Mohanty then elaborated how we need to have “competency development” as well as “capacity development.” In his speech, he focused on the challenge# faced by the farmers – such as land, input quality, weather, nutrition security, and how it’s pertinent to have a look at farming needs and using technology to fulfill it.

Dr. Suresh Subramani, Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego said that extensive export of crude and food by India has precipitated a national crisis in food security. He introduced to the audience CRISPR-cas technology and explained how it can be beneficial for the farmers. According to him, India has immense potential to leverage this technology. He also made everyone of its challenges since it’s a new technology.

At the end of the session, Dr. Olsson strongly condemned the need for any more new policy. She added that the country already has a lot many of them and it’s time that people work on the existing policies.

Dr. Venkatesh Murthy, Professor and Chair of Molecular and Cellualar Biology, Harvard University, moderated the third session of the event titled ‘Why study Life Sciences?’ He initiated the discussion by highlighting how Life Sciences is intrinsic to the daily life of the people.

The first speaker of this session, Mr. Sanjeev Galande, Professor and Chair of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research said that Life Sciences provides us with a platform to find the common thread of life. In his well elaborated presentation, he explained various technologies like single cell biology, and next generation sequencer, among others.

Dr. Yamuna Krishnan, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, began her address with a powerful statement – “We are all born basic scientists.” She demanded innovations in labs and universities to have supportive mechanisms to bring them out and make them reach people.

The session continued with Mr. J. Satyanarayana, Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India, addressing important concerns regarding designing a system for health care which utilises data securely and creates a system that is “secure by design, private by design” in his National Digital Health Mission report.

Mr. Rahul Matthan, Lawyer, Head of Technical Division, raised ethical and legal questions regarding privacy and security. This was followed by a panel discussion and a short Q/A session.

The next session was led by Mr. Tarun Khanna, and focused on ‘Method and Tools to Enhance STEM Education in India.’ Mr. Dmitry Popov, Technology Development fellow in the Wyss Institute at Harvard, gave a detailed account of Soft Robotic Toolkit which can be used by high school and university students alike to explore the world of robotics.

The concluding session included Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, talking about an effective system of government and industry working together to achieve development in the society with the help of science and technology.

Image Credits: Surbhit Rastogi for DU Beat

Maumil Mehraj

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Shreya Agrawal

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Antriksha Pathania

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