Social Networking - The Black Telephone
"Telephone, not handphone, they don't understand a handphone."
A Nepalese guard once corrected me when I told him I am about to introduce an affordable cellphone package to his fellow countrymen. In Nepal, anything that resembles a phone is a 'telephone' to them, that's one of the few English words they know. You mess the word up with any other thing, they won't understand you, or they will PRETEND to understand you but they don't. Many migrants who worked in Malaysia long enough have picked up the 'kiasu' attitude of Malaysians - they won't want to be looked down upon by people the moment they have a better salary than their friends/relatives back in their country.
Ah, the good old black dialer phone.
Still remember that ring? That was the ONLY indication that a call was coming, and it does nothing to us - just pick up the damn receiver. Today, a cellphone ringing makes people panic, like we will miss that call and won't be able to call back. People in a mall will GLARE at you like "Hey, would you pick that up please?" if your phone is playing "Gangnam Style" from its awfully tiny speakers while you're reaching into your pocket for it, or search through your stuff in your thousand Ringgit handbag that contains nothing but rubbish and your cellphone.
Home and businesses have phones, people communicate with them. Today, we can't leave home without our phone, because we use it to do MORE than just communicating. We use it to kill time while waiting for late colleagues, reply and IM or simply tell the world how we feel by updating our Facebook status. We use it to kill boredom alongside with THOUSANDS of Malaysian drivers caught in bumper-to-bumper crawls each day ... as petrol are being sold cheaper and over-priced cars are getting easier to own and even longer to pay off.
A phone not only becomes a necessity, it has become our companion. A phone that stays home is a useless phone, so is the owner that left it there.
How times have changed.
Ah, the good old black dialer phone.
Still remember that ring? That was the ONLY indication that a call was coming, and it does nothing to us - just pick up the damn receiver. Today, a cellphone ringing makes people panic, like we will miss that call and won't be able to call back. People in a mall will GLARE at you like "Hey, would you pick that up please?" if your phone is playing "Gangnam Style" from its awfully tiny speakers while you're reaching into your pocket for it, or search through your stuff in your thousand Ringgit handbag that contains nothing but rubbish and your cellphone.
Home and businesses have phones, people communicate with them. Today, we can't leave home without our phone, because we use it to do MORE than just communicating. We use it to kill time while waiting for late colleagues, reply and IM or simply tell the world how we feel by updating our Facebook status. We use it to kill boredom alongside with THOUSANDS of Malaysian drivers caught in bumper-to-bumper crawls each day ... as petrol are being sold cheaper and over-priced cars are getting easier to own and even longer to pay off.
A phone not only becomes a necessity, it has become our companion. A phone that stays home is a useless phone, so is the owner that left it there.
How times have changed.
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