Cellphone manners (7th July'09)

[A recent post on an HT Blog on travel touched upon how being connected may enable busy people to holiday more. I share here my abridged comments]

While it’s true that new technology is good if it actually ‘frees’ you, is that mostly the case? Some personal experiences may be diametrically opposite. You schedule a holiday to ‘get away from it all’. And then all your companions seem to be doing is going around like zombies with the cellphone glued to their ears!

The new tech. may enable some people to holiday so much more now than 20 years back, but does holidaying just mean physically going around places  and sites? Isn’t it an added (the main?) benefit that people otherwise too busy to connect with one another in daily life, except on a perfunctory basis, should be able to get adequate face time to ‘really’ connect? And how do you get that face time if the face itself is partly obscured by a cellphone almost all the time!

It's no wonder that some people are truly sick and tired of the cellphone, which is perhaps the most ubiquitous manifestation of new tech. More to the point, they are tired of the blatant misuse of the cellphone, if it can be put that way. People seem to be hiding behind new tech. in general (email?) and the cellphone in particular, seemingly to avoid any personal contact.

In days of yore, most people would be offended if you so much as looked away while talking to them, much less start talking to a third person. But these days nobody seems to notice how the cellphone is accorded the pride of place and the highest priority of response even while talking to someone face to face. You may leave the other person looking forlorn but, hey, what the heck, it’s the cellphone after all. And it HAS to be answered come what may!

The bottomline is: how much respect does someone accord to you. Enought to give you his/her undivided attention for at least a few minutes? If not, s/he perhaps deserves the same response and the same level of respect.

This holds true even for those who are no technophobes, those using computers at work since years, present on FB, Twitter, G-talk, Messenger, Orkut, blogging regularly, having own websites, and having tried out IE 8, Opera & Chrome (does that qualify?!). But still the lack of cellphone manners, and the lack of respect for the other that it portrays, may leave them frothing in the mouth.

In Bangkok (14 Jan.'04)

Hi


Writing this from Bangkok, sitting at Novotel Lotus On Sukhumvit 33. Street looks seedy, don't know why they booked us here even as I'm told the serviced apartments hired the last time were better and in the marketplace, almost opposite Pantip Plaza, where we went shopping this evening for a 128 kb flash drive, to buy more if sample approved. The Plaza was impressive, with mostly computer shops. I didn't know that assembled laptops were available for around THB 15K (about INR 18K) - damn good even if they work for a year. Even a Toshiba P-IV 1.8 is available for around THB 35K. Later on, we went to the obligatory departmental dinner at the interestingly named Carrots & Condoms at Sukhumvit 12, with condoms adorned below the glass tabletops. Seemed like a classy do, though the food ordered was unappetising.

Concerned to learn that MG has bronchitis and has to be away from AG as it can be contagious. Has taken AG to the dermatologist today for the rashes. Seems uncanny how all such medical problems erupt when I'm away - happened last time while I was in Uganda.

The two consultants have been at us the past three days, & now our minds are almost empty. Have to go thru at least another 1.5 days of departmental meet. 


Have got a cold also since this morning. Haven't done much looking around at this place famous for 'certain things' - got out last evening but just went to an English pub nearby & then to a pool bar where the 3 guys from IH continued, while we two came back. The proliferation of 'girls' on the street may shock a newcomer if not forewarned. Tomorrow we may either go to the 'promised place' or, as suggested by Terence, or take a boat ride up & down the river.