Small price to pay as technology takes over
IT is amazing how technology helps our lives. Not so long ago, we used telephones to connect with each other.
It was the only reliable way to deliver messages and to say hello to loved ones.
For those who could not afford it, they used public pay phones.
In case of an emergency, there was the telegram service.
It was like Twitter then. We used a limited number of words as it was expensive to deliver important messages, like the death of loved ones.
Public pay phones were also a source of income for drug addicts. They used sticks with glue at the other end to extract coins from the slot. This was enough for their daily fix, much to the chagrin of operators.
When the phone rang late at night, it could only mean bad news. When a postman delivered a telegram, it could only mean the death of someone, or someone who was about to die.
A telegram was also used to send surprise birthday messages.
Office phones were often “misused” to deliver these messages, but imagine the look of the recipient when he received the message as a telegram was always associated with bad news.
Congratulatory telegrams had a different design, but a telegram was always associated with bad news. This physical telegram, where a postman was needed to deliver it, was stopped in 2012 as it was underused.
We still have Telegram now, but the social media kind. It is like a chatroom. We have various chatrooms at our disposal, the more popular being WhatsApp, used by more than two billion people worldwide.
Zoom is gaining momentum as it has video capabilities. It is a virtual meeting room for work and leisure, and sometimes pleasure.
All you need is a smartphone and an Internet connection.
An old school friend only recently bought a smartphone. Before that, he never had one.
I asked him what would happen if there was an emergency at home and he could not be contacted. He said: “I leave it to God.”
But he is resigned to the fact that everyone needs a smartphone as there are scores of alumni waiting for him to get connected.
Now he is an active member of several WhatsApp groups.
At a seminar, a speaker told the audience to use Facebook to promote their products.
Asked why only FB and not other mediums, such as Twitter, he said Facebook was more universal and there were more middleaged people there, which meant they had money.
Twitter is widely used by youngsters and they do not have the same purchasing power.
Some have argued that while kids may not have the dough, they have the power to convince their parents to buy what they want.
And so, Twitter is included in the top list of social media to be used by the audience.
Every day, we see delivery boys (and girls) delivering goods in the neighbourhood.
Are online purchases gaining momentum? You bet it is.
Thanks to Covid-19, people are more health conscious (read: lazy) and refuse to leave the comfort of their homes to buy things.
At the same time, it has created another problem.
Notice the thick bubble plastic used to wrap your purchases? Where does this plastic go? It is hard to recycle this plastic unless you are a seller yourself.
So off it goes to the dumping ground.
You have stopped the use of plastic straws, but there’s now a big pile of plastics with nowhere to go but the dumping ground. This will soon become another environmental problem.
But bubble wraps are important as you’ll find your purchases placed at your doorstep, about 10m away from your locked main gate.
Or you may find your packages soaked as they are placed at the gate when you are out.
Maybe this is the small price to pay in the name of technology. And so life goes on with little changes here and there.