Monday, June 06, 2011

So who's afraid of technology?



Argh, it's just so aggravating when people refuse to make use of technology, even the user-friendliest kind. 

Case in point, today I had three colleagues arguing over whether this Mizo poet was dead or alive. Colleague #1 claims the man had died sometime last year. #2 goes, nooo, the man's wife had come visiting her Mum just earlier this year and there had been no mention of the husband passing on. The third colleague who's supposed to be teaching the old guy's poem in about fifteen minutes, talks to #1 about the poet-guy's daughters/nieces et al. They all seem to know his family well  but, and herein lies the catch, it never occurs to any of them to pick up their cellphones to quickly clarify the matter. Finally, colleague #3 wonders worriedly what to tell her class. I say okay, my cousin's wife is a relative so she should know. I pick up my phone, dial her number, ask, and she tells me, yes, the man is still alive and they'd had a big celebration last year in honour of his 100th birthday. 

Case solved, easy peasy.  My colleagues joke they've almost killed off the poor guy and give me effusive thanks. Not me, technology. 

4 comments:

  1. Easy Peay indeed! Even many of our students do not realise that there's a whole other world to explore other than facebook in the cyber world. Theirs is limited to social networking and all my talks on the advantages of internet have fallen on deaf ears. Its futile!

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  2. So how about you picking up your cellphone and texting me once in a while? :p

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  3. jay-me, I've come to the conclusion that at the college level, the kids are either a little too hard up and/or are new to the city (most being from rural areas) for personal internet connectivity or even regular use, if at all. Also I wonder if maybe we spoonfeed them so much they don't have any need to go browsing online. It's usually only after they move to the PG level that they really get into online exploring for academic purposes.

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  4. DDB, double sim card users are aggravating, you know! And expensive :p

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