Book Review of The Smart Balance

The Smart Balance
By Ankita Aurora.

Release: September 2019.
Genre: Self Help

Summary:

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the author for focusing on the least discussed issue, but the irony is that it is suffered by each one of us and we don’t even know or may be don’t like to talk about that.

You might get an idea that what I am talking about. Yes, that’s right I am talking about one kind of addiction which is accepted socially. That addiction is “Gadget Addiction”, and when I say gadget addition, it includes every electronic device, be it T.V, mobiles, iPod etc.

If you compare the lifestyle of people which they used to have a decade back to the lifestyle now, you will find a huge difference. We are so rapidly moving towards digitization. Everyone now-a-days is promoting digitization, but we should keep one point in our mind that every coin has two sides. Blind and excessive use of anything is very dangerous.

We should start to think or act now about where we are heading and what would be its adverse effects, before it is too late to realize. This age is an informational age where everything can be done through online. Any damn information can be availed through Google. I work in an IT firm but cannot think a day without Google. Whenever we have any questions which we cannot ask to anyone,we ask it to Google and Google provides us so many answers for one question. It’s amazing and I hat off to them to maintain such a huge data.

Likewise, you all might also be dependent on technology and the online services.These online services make our day easy and comfortable, but have we ever thought that how much dependent we have become on technology. For instance, whenever we start craving, we just take our phone out and start ordering from those utility Apps.

Similarly, whenever we face any health issue, most of us prefer to first search the symptoms in google and match it, wherein 90% of the contents are not authorized contents. Even if few authorized medical contents exist, they get filtered out due to SEO. So, the article you are referring to improve your medical condition may go worst. Sometimes, simple headache may be misinterpreted as brain tumor through that wrong information.

Have you ever thought of how many hours do you use your phone in a day, if not, then you may download such apps which show how many hours you have used your phone and if you go into details then you will get which app is the most used one. I did this and got shocked by the numbers shown in the screen. That is true, we unintentionally use our phone. We don’t even realize that when the notification pops up and wherever we are, even if in a meeting, we just pull it out and glare the screen.

Worst problem is that we glare the screen at night as well after we go to bed. But the problem is that no one talks about its bad impact. We know that mobile emits very harmful rays so we should not always keep it near to us (even phone manuals have these things written), but we take our best friend everywhere, some people take it to the washroom as well, but nobody is talking about this, everyone is talking about the hi-tech technology being used in it.

Whatever I just wrote is not my point of view, it’s the author who made me aware. To be honest, everyone knows about it but very few take pause and see where we are heading.

So we should thank Ankita who took a pause and analyzed not only the cause but also how to prevent it, because things have changed and we know that we cannot live without phone which neither she is saying, but she is showing us ways to make a balance use of it, which truly makes sense.

My Review:

I won’t exaggerate it but it’s been a while that I haven’t read a good self-help. Honestly, I loved the book because it has message of not to avoid phones but how to use it smartly. I am using the word “phone” here because only electronic gadget that I have is phone. I loved the way author has written this book, it has very small paragraphs which give you power to go on till the end. Honestly, I never felt boring at any point of time while reading. It has very small chapters as well in a sequential manner as it doesn’t jump to the solution. Author has explained in a step by step manner that how technology made us its slave and how we can maintain a balance between technology and life.

She has also enlightened the fact that how we have made ourselves isolated as a result of it. She has shown how the connection between nature and human has vanished, which I found rare as most of the books talk about the ways to get rid of dependency with gadgets, but no one focuses on nature who always nurtures us. She encourages her readers to get connected with it.

Lessons Learnt from It:

Try to make connection with nature as its exposure automatically heals most of the pain of our body.

Monitor the usage of phones in a day.

Try to maintain a balance between technology and life.

Give importance to your real life and not the virtual life as shown on Social Media.

What all things I liked about the book

The book tries to connect you with nature which I found the best thing about it.
I have already mentioned it earlier that it makes you realize that it's high time to reduce your dependency with technology.
Agenda of it is to reduce or make a balance between tech and life, unlike other books, it shows us ways to maintain a discipline rather than just to avoid it.

What all things I disliked about it

The only thing which I didn't like is that I found it a bit pricey. It has great messages so I think it should be available at a little cheaper rate. Though I got the free copy but the buyers might find it a little pricey.

Reason to read it