Afunny thing happened on the way to the communication revolution in the 21st century. You might wonder what it is because we have mobile phones, e-mail and voice mail to contact anybody in any part of the world.
However, we have stopped meeting people and talking to them. I have two incidents to prove my point. One day I saw a woman at a bus halt talking to someone on her mobile phone. She had left her shopping bag on the ground to answer the phone. She did not see when a stray dog picked a frozen chicken from the bag and ran away.
A close friend working in an insurance company left for Australia a few years ago. After settling down there he started sending e-mails and family photos to his friends and asked for their comments. Somewhat annoyed by the regular flow of e-mails, a friend asked him why he was sending such e-mails. The reply he received stunned him. “I’m quite comfortable here. I have everything I need, but I feel very lonely. I am unable to meet any friends or talk to them.”
On another day, I was walking in the nearby park with a friend. As usual his mobile phone started ringing interrupting our conversation. Lo and behold! We were walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and – poof! In an instant I became invisible to him and absent from the conversation. I was not surprised as the park was filled with people talking on their mobile phones. They were passing other people without looking at them, saying ‘Hello’, noticing their babies or stopping to pet their puppies. Evidently, the untethered electronic voice has risen above human contact.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he did a yeoman service to mankind. He would never have imagined that a future mobile phone would destroy human contact in toto. In the good old days we used the telephone sparingly to convey some good or bad news to someone living far away. We never telephoned the next door neighbour to wish him a happy birthday. Instead we would go to his house and wish him in a friendly manner.
Today, however, we do not even see the people sitting next to us on a bus or train. Recently I travelled to Kataragama with some of my friends. While we were chatting gleefully, the driver shushed the rest of us because he could not hear the person on the other end of his mobile phone. There we were zooming down the highway, unable to talk to one another because of a gadget designed to make communication easier for us.
More disconnected
Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected we feel? I feel that every advance in communication technology has created a setback to the intimacy of human interaction. Today we can communicate with anyone using instant messaging over the Internet or e-mail without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail we can conduct entire conversations without even reaching anyone. What is more, some university students complete their studies online without meeting their lecturers.
For someone born in the mid-20th century, this kind of automation and alienation is hard to beat. You cannot even call a person to get someone’s telephone number any more. Directory assistance is becoming increasingly popular. In modern times, you can get many services without human contact. You do not have to stand in a queue to withdraw money from your bank because you can swipe your card at the Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Credit cards and debit cards have made our transactions easier with less human contact.
Some of us old-timers still like to visit a supermarket and select the goods and make payment to the cashier. Some people do not take the trouble to go to a supermarket and they order whatever they want online. When the courier brings the items ordered by them, they have only to make the payment. In times to come, you won’t have the burden of making eye contact with the cashier at the supermarket. However, I would still prefer to say hello to the cashier and ask how she is doing.
In any circumstance, we need not give up our mobile phones, ATM cards or e-mail accounts because they are great inventions. It is their unintended consequences that make us cringe. Undoubtedly, mobile phones and laptops are important inventions in human history. Without them you will never be able to know the answers to some pertinent questions.
Skilled professionals
For many of us, the first experience with computers occurs in the workplace. This was true in newspaper business. One day we, reporters, came to the office and discovered that our old manual typewriters had been replaced with sleek and efficient computers with keys that said mysterious things. Fortunately, we were trained by skilled professionals.
However, we were somewhat wary at first, but after the training we discovered that instead of writing on one side of blank sheets, we could create lengthy articles on the screen. Sometimes, to our horror, the article we typed disappeared. “Where the hell is my story?” a reporter would shout. Then we gradually learned the art of saving our stories.
Walk into any newspaper office today and you will see serious looking journalists clattering away on their keyboards. It seems as if they are writing important stories about the plight of humanity. In fact, some of them may be sending each other e-mails retelling the joke the male giraffe said to the female giraffe in the bar!
Those of us who are living in the 21st century readily acknowledge the usefulness of modern electronic gadgets, but the gizmos we create only serve individual comfort and separated lives. No matter how much our high-tech life isolates us, we will always need each other’s company.
