Those Good Old Days?

I remember those good old days when those technology called mobile phones and internet do not exist. The only way for us to get in touch with someone was either by calling them on their house phones, writing them snail mails or by showing up in front of their house, if you know where they live.

I recall waiting for my parents to come home from work in agony at home when I was in primary school. Those days, office numbers were strictly meant for business and everyone understood that when you're at work, you shouldn't be attending to personal calls unless it's really a matter of life and death. Though that rule still vaguely exists in the current office policy, I am almost certain that it is being ignored by most people. And thanks to mobile phones, taking personal calls when you're suppose to be at work and working just got easier.

I too, remember during my teenage years, those few times when I was going out, like, konon-konon on a date or merely meeting up with friends. We will normally set the place and time for us to meet up maybe a day or two before the outing. And on that day itself, we might or might not show up or sometimes showed up late. The most irritating part is actually waiting for that person to make his/her appearance. It's great if they showed up, and if they don't, they just don't. I've had my share of being stood up and I had also been guilty for not showing up; but most of the time, I just showed up late. Heheh..

Technology obviously arrives with their pros and cons. We all know what good it does, enough has been said by aplenty. I, on the contrary would like to dispose my thoughts on the bad vibes they give.

Lost of Privacy
Apart from having our children, husbands/wives, boyfriends/girlfriends, mom, dad, pak ngah and mak long calling us in the office, our employers now call us to discuss about work stuffs on our off days and vacation days like as if we didn't labored ourselves enough. Marketers call us up to sell us things over the phone irregardless of the time and irregardless of what we're doing at the moment. And we are obligated to answer all that phone calls or get remarks like..'tak tau jawab phone ke die ni?' or 'tak tau pakai handphone tak yah pakai la..'. You know, those kind of statements, which I'm sure some of you may have experienced, and again, some may even have been guilty of having committed such abomination. Kan?

Lost of Manners
Because we are now, bit by bit losing our privacy, we have become more self-centered and more barbaric. If we can't have privacy on our own time at our own place, we shall now bring that privacy we need out into public. Thus, we talk on our mobile phones while walking (not a pretty sight, I have to say) and we fiddle with our phones (be it smsing or just playing games) when we're out having lunch in the company of others (which I think is utterly rude). We chat on our phones, in the presence of others for hours, leaving the other party terpinga-pinga sorang-sorang tak tau nak buat ape, while probably telling themselves...'macam ni lebih baik aku keluar sorang-sorang.' Right?

Lost of Security
Believe it or not, but we are losing our sense of security and trust towards others because of them fucking mobile phones. Now we are more agog to be checking on people everywhere they go at all times. Don't forget too, that we have become more vulnerable to having our boyfriends/girlfriends, husbands/wives calling us time and time again to check if we really are at the place we claimed to be and with the people we're supposed to be with. And on the new 'friend finder' thingy the service providers came up with, more spies and Mr/Miss Nosy Parkers spawned. Then, we reasoned to ourselves; that all those checking ups were in the name of love and care for our loved ones, whether or not they are safe and sound. To me, those reasons is full of absurdity! Maybe not a hundred percent, but still crappy for most of it.

No doubt that that technology is wonderfully amazing and benevolent. I, for an instance, is a user, a victim and a villain all rolled into one. Mobile phones has put a stop to 'time wastage'. And yes, a lot of time has been wasted on waiting, back in those days. But we indeed learned a thing or two. Not only we learned to keep our promise (at least most of the time), but we also learned to respect the privacy of others.