By Manoj Pande
Ubiquitous and omnipresent, it is not ‘smart’ enough without them. Cajoled openly or surreptitiously, they seek to occupy more and more space in it. These are App times in the age of the smartphone.
In prehistoric times when there was no Gen Zee, a certain Alexander Graham Bell made an invention in 1876. Called a telephone, it enabled communication between two persons separated at a distance. The telephone instrument, usually black in colour, was placed at a prominent place in the home or the office and connected to wires on the street, which were mounted on poles. It was also called a landline.
To those of my generation (greyed, greying or bald), this would certainly ring a bell (pun intended). For their information, Gen Zee refers to those born between the years 1995 and 2010. These persons, sometimes also known as the first generation of digital natives, have grown up with the internet, social media and the smartphone.
Coming back to our prehistory, using the landline required that one walk up to it, pick up the receiver, dial a number and wait for the person at the other end to pick up the receiver on a similar instrument in his/her home or office that went tring-tring till picked up. “Hello” was a question as well as an answer. Paraphrasing an old saying, it required Mohammed to go to the mountain.
No longer. Unshackled from the wires, the phone is now in our hands. To go wherever we take it. And with what features! Camera, radio, computer and what not – it is really a ‘smart’ phone. Mountain has indeed come to Mohammed.
My tryst with the smartphone began with WhatsApp. Seeing everyone use it, I knew it was time to upgrade. Out went the old Nokia and in came a Samsung with a touchscreen. A trifle more expensive, but with far more features. Took some time to get used to it but the journey had begun.
As they say, a journey begins with a small step. If WhatsApp was here would other apps not be far behind?
Soon enough, I was at the Play Store. Not the one selling toys and stuff, but that great storehouse of Apps in the virtual world. Soon enough, I had downloaded a dictionary. This was just the beginning. Cab booking (Ola, Uber, Rapido) was followed by social media (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram). Then in quick succession came Quick commerce (Blinkit, Swiggy, Zepto), E Commerce (Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket), Meetings (Zoom, Webex) with Email and some newspapers. I even have a language learning App Duolingo.
Sarkaari Apps have also made their way to my smartphone. Most of them are very useful. Digilocker, Bill payment (Electricity, House Tax, Water), Gas Cylinder booking, Air and train related information are all wonderful and easy to use.
Banking apps make life simpler. We need not visit the bank for everything. The flip side is that our already free time as senior citizens has got further enhanced. Now the ‘Jeevan Pramaan’ App has done away with the annual ‘I am alive’ visit to the bank too.
The screen of my phone is now cluttered with so many Apps that try as I might, it has become difficult to segregate them in a proper sequence. And I shudder when the superior half asks me to locate an App on her mobile, giving her yet another opportunity to classify me as no good.
As someone with AI (Average Intelligence), Apps have taken away even basic thinking rights. We negotiate routes with Google maps rather than rely on known landmarks and even asking a passerby or two “Bhaisahab, D Block kis taraf hai….?” A short walk to buy a soap or a packet of biscuit/milk is abandoned no sooner the stuff is booked on Blinkit. The Weather App decides whether it is hot or cold. And today, even though I did not feel it, I was told that Dehradun had a very high AQI. After all, the App showed so. But then App is what App says.
I wonder why most apps are free. I am told they collect personal data every time we use it. But we largely browse at stuff and mostly never intend to buy them. But advertisements start flowing no sooner we do so. I wonder will Mercedes and Lamborghini barrage me with ads if I browse through their models online? On the other hand, my Facebook page continues to be filled with advertisements from makers of shoes as I had been browsing through those. It is over a week since I bought one, but the adverts don’t cease.
Our PM recently visited Ethiopia. Out of curiosity, today I watched images of Addis Ababa. Let me see what comes on my phone from tommorow – Travel Suggestions, Hotel Suggestions or sellers of authentic Ethiopian coffee?
(Manoj Pande, a former railway officer, is now based in Dehradun.)
