Boon or bane?
ALL over the world, there must be millions of people who are in possession of the smart handphone. Smart it may well be, but it a is weapon in the wrong hands.
It is impossible to prevent anyone from acquiring it from the open market. And there may be many wrong hands out there. A person of any age may buy it; no licence is required to own it; no lengthy coaching is necessary.
In the hands of someone intent on defaming somebody else, the smartphone is like a doubleedged sword. For instance, it was used to great effect in influencing voters by the candidates and their agents before and during the just-concluded Malaysian general election. I have heard comments about how several candidates in the elections had sprung surprise wins by relying on the hand phones to reach out to voters, among other things.
In these cases, the hand phone is either a bane or a boon depending on who benefits from its service.
In another situation, it is a boon indeed. For someone who is able to read a language or who can tap on the keyboard, it is a gadget worth having, if you can afford one. It is an expensive ‘toy’ that requires its battery to be regularly charged. I am sorry for someone who has no access to electricity but glad that he is not in possession of a dangerous weapon.
It can cause friction in a family. If George can have one, why can’t Jane? If Dad can have one, why can’t Mum? So it is not uncommon to see a family of five each owns the mobile phone – or two! The old house phone has not been used for ages; the old mobile model was given to the toddler to play with.
Some people who own a mobile phone don’t read print newspapers any more. ‘Can read it all online’; sure, but it’s not the same as the real thing. Or so I think anyway.
It is a useful possession. In the old days, a family wanting to have a group photograph taken to commemorate a certain important occasion, had to go to a studio. Nowadays, there is no need to do so; the mobile phone can do all the necessary recording of the event. And the photos can be sent instantly to any relative who is miles away.
Everyone is a photojournalist. A picture of an accident can be sent to the editorial office of a newspaper company by anyone with a mobile phone. Whoosh it goes off to the local newspaper, whoosh it goes off to Facebook, never mind how embarrassing or distressing this may be to the accident victim and his family! Quite recently, someone (police I think) appealed to the public to help at the scene of an accident, not photograph it. “Call the police and the ambulance first, then take your snapshots!”
The mobile phone can be used for an evil purpose – to defame another person or a product of value. Business rivalry has found an ideal tool to quietly run down another company’s products.
The Russians have been accused of influencing the voters in the United States of America into voting for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. I don’t know if this is really so. I thought it was the gerrymandering of electoral votes that made Hillary Clinton lose to Trump.
There must be millions of people who would like to have the smartphone, but in the rural areas in Sarawak they will have to wait for the availability of 24-hour power supply before they can enjoy the wonders of the mobile phone.
The technology is here to stay as long as there is a demand for its use for good or for evil. The only way to avoid using it is not to own one.
I have recently acquired one to keep up with the Joneses, without knowing what I was in for.
While it cannot directly kill humans like the hydrogen bombs did, it can certainly do a lot of damage to a person’s reputation, to a country’s good image, and to a product’s fame.
At the same time, it can do something good: relatives who have not seen or known each other can communicate with other via the ‘Family Chit Chat’, to speak face to face with relatives or friends thousands of miles away – one of the good sides of such a gadget.
It can unite members of an extended family. Close relatives who have not met or seen or heard about each other in the past are meeting via the mobile phone. Photos of members of families can be seen on the screen of the phone. That’s a really smart thing to have. Used in this way. It is a marvellous invention.
It depends on the person or persons having such a gadget: a good user does not use it to damage the reputation of a fellow human being or an institution or a country; a bad user uses it for a purpose that serves his own interests.
I have nothing against people owning such a weapon, but it is like a double-edged sword. I am in possession of one myself. My prayer is that I will never use it for an evil purpose and that no one will abuse it to hurt anybody or thing. A boon to the journalists For a journalist based in a rural town like Kapit or Marudi, the smartphone is a real boon – a crucial aid. He can send his pictures to illustrate his stories by sending the pictures and the stories via the email in one go to his editor who is based in Kuching.
I used to help journalists from the vernacular papers in Sibu. They sent photographs and articles through me for delivery at Kuching airport. Someone from the printing editorial office would pick it from me. That’s how I knew a number of reporters.
That’s how I got first-hand knowledge of news before it was published the following day. In return for the carriage I would ask what the envelope contained; it was a photo of an event. It’s a far cry from the good old days. Nowadays the news and photo are sent by email.
So I am out of job and cannot get first-hand news anymore.
Useful as a source of evidence to prove happening of an event. A person with the mobile phone at the scene of a crime can help police look for the suspect if the suspect’s image is recorded on the mobile phone.
Comments can reach the writer via columnists@ theborneopost.com.