Smartphones and a not-so-smart life

In my undergrad days at the University of Ghana some 13 years ago, mobile phones were  a novelty. If you owned a Nokia 3310 back in those days, you were the man (well, and the woman!!). Even the best phones then, weighed so much they were humorously referred to as "Gomoa Bankye", a comparison to cassava from Gomoa (I must confess here that i have never set my eyes on cassava from the Gomoa township and hence cannot confirm its size).  

 

Mobile phones were largely  the preserve of students whose homes were flowing with milk and honey, and not those of us who survived on "gari" for lunch on campus. Our fellow students who had the luxury of traveling abroad during the vacations came back with different models and shoved them in our faces. Back in those days, your ratings went a notch higher on the dating stock exchange if you possessed a mobile which had a radio. Thus began the mobile phone penetration into our social lifestyle and before long, almost every household can boast of at least a member who uses a mobile phone.

Today, we have the Smartphone; a sleeker, lighter, and more functional descendant of the Gomoa Bankye era. One key feature of the present generation phones is instant internet connectivity. With the proliferation of smartphones and the numerous applications (apps) available to users, it is much easier to keep up wth the rest of the world, find out how stocks are doing, read the latest on Ukraine or the goings on in the changing room of Manchester United, or join the global campaign to bring back some girls, all at the swipe of your fingers. To most users today, it is almost impossible to imagine life without their handsets. 

One wonders how we arranged appointments, connected with friends & fed our daily dose of both local and international news when mobile phones were at best devices only the rich and upper class could afford. Most of us would suffer severe withdrawal symptoms and disorders if we misplaced our phones or at best left them home as we stepped out for the day. 

Indeed our lifestyles  have certianly improved thanks to these Smartphones; but like everything else which begins with a noble course, there's a huge social cost to the use and especially over use of such devices. One key one is the fast eroding art of face to face interactions between people. It is an all too familiar sight to see people in a group talking to everyone but each other as they are each busy chatting with someone else online with their mobile phones. These days most homes don't share quality family times together as each member would most likely be keeping up their end of an online conversation rather than be seen chatting with the fellow family member. 

I was at a birthday party last Thursday evening after work; for those of you who know me very well, you will indeed find my attendance very strange given the fact that i am not much of a party person. But this particular party i was not to miss since it was of a special person. So, at about half past 7pm, I made it to the venue (a popular hangout on the Ring Road) looking dapper and as the youth of today say, with "swag" . I was ushered to my table where i hastily share pleasantries with my fellow members and quickly proceeded to bring out my so-called smartphone and within a few minutes, i was deeply engrossed in online conversations. Bad manners, you think? Do not worry, because all of us at the table were each engrossed in their phones. We were happier chatting with online friends than the with the real flesh and blood sitting across us.

Back in the days, i easily struck up conversations with a fellow trotro passenger on a trip (this was even more so the case if the person happens to be a beautiful daughter of mother Eve). These days, the moment i get into a bus, i whisk out my mobile phone as soon as i have comfortably settled in to the uncomfortable seats of the rickety trotro.  it is a common sight on most buses to see everyone hunched forward staring at the lighted screens of their phones making one wonder if the bus was full of hunchbacks. 

On the same matter note of trotro experiences, I am yet to recover from my shock of hearing a fellow passenger in a Lapaz bound bus tell someone over the phone that he was in Koforidua at the moment and would not be back till the following day! This revelation elicited laughter in the bus when at that very moment the driver's mate chose to bellow "Lapaz, Lapaz" to call in prospective passengers.  

I have received messages from people in a language supposedly to be shorthand of English. Thanks to mobile phone use, a new form of lingua has evolved and is used especially among young users on social media. However I am expected to know that "ikr" means "I know right", and "HBD"   means "Happy Birthday" and not "International Karate Road" and "Home Box Department", beats me. These days, people "lol" when in fact they have not made a sound what so ever. And oh, to the uninitiated, "lol" means "Laughing Out Loud". Granted that language is dynamic and that each generation contributes a new word or terminology to the general vocabulary, i shudder to think about what "lingua" our students produce their answers at exams in. Could we be looking at another reason why students perform badly at exams lately?

Mobile phones were once a novelty and a status symbol but now, they are all over the place cheaper by the dozen. The descendants of the "bankye phones",  have indeed become a part of our daily lives and the day one leaves the house without his phone, is the day of confusion and great uneasiness. However, as we indulge in the enormous advantages living in a connected world thanks to Smartphones, we must not forget that we live in it with fellow humans who sometimes need a human connection and not an online one.

Ha!! What do you know!! I just noticed i left my Samsung at home!! Gosh i feel so left out!! I can instantly feel beady sweat forming on my neck; i am not concentrating anymore. I need to know what's new on Facebook; I have to return home to pick it up!! Yeah, you guessed right, that's how bad the addiction is.