The smart-phone generation

A friend was bragging about the apps on her new Android phone as we sat in a dark theatre waiting for the film to begin.

“The Shakespeare app gives me a list of sonnets, plays, etc of the Bard,” she said. “And I’m so addicted to the e-book app. So much so that I have developed a number and have to wear specs.”

“Oh,” I expressed wonder. “What else can your phone do?” I was quick to cash in on the opportunity to get a free lesson in new mobile-phone technology.

She said her friends shop online. Every time they come across something they like, they take pictures and send them to the others online. After some discussion, the prospective buyer makes his/her decision. Sounds like a cool way of operating. But is this all friendships  have come to? I mean, whatever happened to those days when, in girlish excitement, we’d call each other and  meet up at Bandra or Lokhandwala to shop?

For me, a phone has always been (and always will be) a little box that fits into the palm of my hand, makes and receives calls, sends urgent texts, perhaps plays the radio, and has a fairly good memory to contain my ever-increasing contact list. A mobile phone for me carries out basic communication functions. Treating it like a convenience store doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea (maybe if I had a new-age phone, I would bask in the glory of what it could do for me).

But with life as it is now, everybody seems to be running to catch the next big thing. From the regular Nokia with radio to cameras to touch screens to QWERTY keypads to what not. When the BlackBerry arrived, everybody wanted a piece of it. And now it seems like everybody has one. A friend (who did not own a BB until a few days ago) even observed that many of our common teenage buddies managed to find partners after they got BlackBerries. How, you might ask. Young boys and girls sharing BB pins and chatting away all day have cemented relationships, it seems. A BB messenger is probably their channel for finding love, while for us it used to be religious and social events like weddings, etc.

I’m baffled while I wonder if anyone communicates the way we did just a few years ago. Hello/Hi have made way for Wassup. (I still don’t have an answer satisfactory enough for that question.) People don’t laugh the hahahahah way anymore, they only LOL/LMAO/ROTFLMAO/ and such like. You’re only as cool as the number of Facebook friends you have. That you keep in touch with only two of them is a different matter altogether.

I may sound like an old cynic who cannot see and appreciate the wonders the new-age mobile phones and internet have brought into our lives. But think about it. Don’t you miss the good ol’ days of meet and greet?