Oped»
Pick up artists
AUG 09 -
On April 3, 1973, an innovationist named Martin Cooper stood on Sixth Avenue in New York City, to make the first ever phone call from a Dyna-Tac handheld cellular phone. He called his counterpart at Bell Labs, Joel Englel, and said these words: “Joel, I’m calling you from a ‘real’ cellular telephone, a portable handheld telephone.” That historic moment laid the foundation of the development of telecommunications and cellular, making our life so much easier compared to our ancestors. In the case of Nepal up until 1995, I distinctly remember that my tole (a small neighbourhood in a ward) in Pokhara had about four or five phones. The owner of the phones used to be quite stressed as they were obliged to relay the messages or go door to door to invite their neighbours to receive a phone call. In my tole each owner covered approximately eight to nine households. It was impossible to call the police or ambulance for my neighbours without a phone for whom the only option in case of emergency was to go outside their home and yell: Guhar Guhar! (help, help).
Now things look different - a revolution in information technology has made mobile phones available to us at somewhat affordable rates. You do not have to wait 10 years to get a phone from Nepal Telecom as it was common in the past - rather the process takes less than ten minutes. Such progress has expanded the possibilities and style of communication - providing us with the additional joy of being connected to the world through virtual conversation. Conversation indeed is the greatest joy and certainly the most enduring of all that distinguishes the human being from animal and the civilised man from the barbarian. Mobile phones have made it easier for us to share this joy even with kith and kin who do not see eye to eye. It has made us less lonely - as it has become our new best friend that can engage us with the outside world in any possible way - taking pictures, texting, calling, or reading news. Nevertheless, we need to be careful if such facilities are corroding our lives in an atmosphere of unrelenting discord. Should we also not focus on what ills they have invited in our day to day life?
One of my friends recently admitted he has become less and less friendly in social set-ups such as bars or conferences because he finds it much easier to talk over the phone than have a face to face conversation. This may be a personal issue but needless to say one of many public concerns. One quite astonishing observation in the Nepali context is the lack of mobile etiquette. I attended a meeting with several high profile people including mayors, deputies and bureaucrats, where someone was talking about a grave policy issues concerning the development of Nepal. Very few of the key attendees thought it appropriate to put their phones on the silent mode in respect of the presenters. Yes indeed, you must have guessed by now, there were intermittent interferences when these key figures thought it was more important to take a phone call rather than devoting their time in a pre-arranged meeting which was to teach them governance. Yes, I understand that there may be emergency calls, but there were many who picked up the phone in the middle of the presentation to say, “Listen I am in a meeting. So let’s talk next time.” If these two lines could potentially be distractive, why bother even picking up the phone? Why is there a need for us to be at many places at the same time, but be nowhere, all the time. I am sure those of you who closely follow our CA meetings in television see politicians busy with their handsets rather than their work. I just wish to hear what stuff they
are discussing over the phone that
is more important than the future
of this country.
Once I saw a priest offering prayers to god - who stopped his chants of the Vedas to discuss his dinner plan. Similarly, it has become common to see drivers of cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles talking on their phones as they swerve in the crazy corners of Kathmandu. Everyone who drives red, black or blue plates - meaning the so-called educated elites to our illiterate countrymen follows this trend. I wonder if they are aware of the fact that drivers who use hand-held devices while driving are four times more likely to get into serious crashes because they are distracted by the conversation.
According to a study by University of Utah psychologists, using a cell phone while driving delays a driver’s reaction similar to that of a driver under the influence of alcohol at the legal limit of .08 percent. This research was done for automatic cars in the US - it is quite astonishing to think what the result would be if the car chosen was manual, where one of your hands is steering the car and the other shifting between the mobile and the gear as you deal with traffic in Kathmandu.
From the happenings on the streets of Kathmandu to office boardrooms, it is pretty clear that we do take into account the negative consequences of our own action. Try to go to one of the movie theaters in Kathmandu. Often as the movie’s plot is unfolding you start hearing the ring tones, and yes again, someone without any concern of how he would distract other persons from the movie, has to pick up. It is not a problem if people like to speak on their phones during the movies, but they should have the courtesy to go outside the theatre. Technology expertise provides us immense opportunities but also an equal amount of threats. Television has given us information, news and entertainment, but it has also promoted a sedentary lifestyle. Mobiles have connected us to others but in the case of Nepal they are also making us insensitive to the inconvenience they cause other people. Hence, it is better to keep in mind that well-timed silence has more eloquence than an ill timed conversation.
(Dhakal is a freelance writer)
Posted on: 2010-08-10 09:04
Headlines
Advertisements
