It is fundamentally human to want to socialize and stay connected to other people. But the internet’s greatest achievement is not the ability to connect or educate or allow business to effectively advertise and market their products or services. No, it is the massive platform it has provided, with the security blanket of anonymity, for people to bash each other. As the pace of the wired revolution continues to expand, showing every sign of tightening its grip on the way we communicate and consume,it is not hard to see how pessimism and trivial-mindedness have become the edifying currency of our generation. Look around you. These two features drive page views, sell magazines, and give people the opportunity to deride and degrade and insult others and their own without worrying about direct retribution. Look at that ugly phenomenon called the “comment” box, whose allure allows posters to say what they could never dare say to another’s face. Shockingly, online content is now responsible for almost one in five complaints about racial vilification. Why are we all competing to bring each other down?
Dravid's recall: a knee-jerk reaction
Once again, youth has been jettisoned, the system has been done away with, journalist's Saturdays have been ruined and, quite amazingly, Rahul Dravid is back in the one-day team. The same Dravid who was dumped twice over the last four years and overlooked for the World Cup, a chance he silently pined for. WTF? The decision, we are told, is a pragmatic, immediate one: the team is marred by injury and needs Dravid's vault of international experience - he is the seventh-highest run-scorer of all time, with 10,765 runs in 339 matches - and his innate ability to scrap and hold together an innings. But the man in question is 38 years and 207 days and hasn't played an ODI since September 2009, after being recalled two years from being dropped. The scenario then? India's young hopefuls had failed to cope in testing conditions in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy in 2009. The scenario now? Injury to Yuvraj Singh, Cheteshwar Pujara's absence through injury, the apparen
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