The mobile-phone technology has developed fairly fast – over a period of last three decades or so. With the unwieldy large sized walkie-talkie type of cell phones that was considered to be a status symbol in the not-so-recent past, we have now come to a stage when our expectations from such phones have gone up many folds. We don’t call it mobile-phone any more – we call it smart phone.
In fact smart phones are gradually getting smarter while the users are turning listless, lethargic or to put it mildly, ‘preoccupied’. Go to any street corner – you find virtually everybody – ladies or gents, young or old - is busy on the phone. He is either talking, enjoying music, surfing on the net, playing a game or if not anything else, fiddling with the buttons of his gadget. In short, everyone is apparently busy. Kudos to the technology: it turned everybody into a ‘very busy person or a highly preoccupied machine. The family life and the social life are not his cup of tea any more. Talking of social life, many people feel happy in staying in touch with ‘friends’ – known or unknown – while their home-life is anybody’s guess!
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Why is this called ‘smart-phone’ because it works smarter. It keeps in its memory all the birthdays and anniversaries you need to remember and reminds you at the appropriate moment so that you don’t miss out. It carries a magnifying glass, a torch, a voice recorder, a camera with video facility, a scanner, a calculator, a translator, an assistant to respond to your questions, a diary, a work-to-do list with reminder facility, a clock with alarm system, a music-player and of course the internet facility. The list is simply illustrative. You name an application – be it health or fitness related or dream interpretation - and it is there.
The moot question is: do we really need all these spoon-feeding ‘assistants’ for even our basic needs, and whether the gadget is taking away our small joys and happiness for minor accomplishments that we were so used to in the golden past. The art of letter writing for example is now defunct. We instead derive a sense of pride about using the messaging service of our smart phone to say hi, hello. The personal touch is lost. Everything becomes mechanical, automatic with feelings taking the back seat. Is this the world of technology that we bargained for? I leave this question wide open for our readers to respond.
Author : Syed Zafar Ahmad
Designation: Executive Director
Bio: A freelancer with a flair for experimenting with innovative technology and electronic gadgets that could enrich the life of a modern common man, and a consultant in issues touching every-day life of a computer suave professional.
Bio: A freelancer with a flair for experimenting with innovative technology and electronic gadgets that could enrich the life of a modern common man, and a consultant in issues touching every-day life of a computer suave professional.
