PHONE MANAGEMENT

Modern phones, added worries

‘Hi, mom rchd bs stp', ‘wtg fr bs', ‘bs dlyd', ‘bus arrv', ‘gt into bs', ‘bs mvg', ‘gt dwn' — the list is endless.

Every new innovation spawns an entire breed of (ab)users who exploit it to its excessive limits. We call these species of human beings maniacs and they are as old as the inventions themselves.

The invention of the microphone (known in the common man's terminology as the ‘mike'), led to the emergence of the ‘mikomaniac'. Given an opportunity to lay his hands on a mike during a public function, he clutches it as if his dear life depends on it, blissfully unaware of the jeers and yawns of his audience.

When soap operas became an integral part of the households, there arose the serial-o-maniac who would not move away from the idiot box for anything.

These are all manias of the past. If at all these exist today, they are in a minority or they have been absorbed into the mainstream society. Today, society is having to contend with its latest breed of manias.

Communication is the buzzword of modern times. It is the latest mania and its practitioner is the communicomaniac — he who must communicate or receive communication, even if there is nothing to tell or listen to.

Under the broad spectrum of communicomaniacs come the more specific maniacs; the phonomaniac, whose existence is meaningless unless he receives or makes a call every few minutes. There is the netomaniac, who lives in mortal fear of being marooned on an island of ignorance while the informed world goes by, all because he lost his net connection for a few minutes.

How do you identify these maniacs? Let us take the phonomaniac, for instance. He is busy with his work (which, surprisingly does not involve the use of the phone). Tring, tring. His feet and hands start twitching. Tring, tring. He is afraid the ring will stop and his life will be devastated forever. Tring, tring. This is the point of no return. He must grab the receiver, come what may. He leaves his job midway and rushes to the telephone, only to be greeted with an unsolicited marketing call. So what, he did manage to grab the phone before the world came to an end. This is no small victory.

Added worries come with the modern phone with added features. Previously, if the phone was engaged, you would be greeted with the irritatingly rhythmic beep, beep sound. Now that is not the case. Even if the phone at the other end is not free, you are given to believe that it is, thanks to the wonderfully welcoming ringing sound. And if it is not picked up within five rings, you imagine the worst. And God save the person at the other end who is constantly interrupted in his important conversation by the beep-beep, indicating that someone is desperate to talk to him. Finally, out of curiosity and fatigue, he disconnects the ongoing call.

Now comes the anti-climax. The ‘imagined' desperate person at the other end might just be a routine caller with some routine query.

If talking on the phone is comparable to a cake, then sending short messages, the fabled SMSes, is the proverbial icing on the cake. Sending and receiving the same has become a national pastime or, shall we say, a national wastage of time? The girl who leaves for college with her most essential accessory sends at least 10 messages to the concerned parents at home within an hour. ‘Hi, mom rchd bs stp', ‘wtg fr bs', ‘bs dlyd', ‘bus arrv', ‘gt into bs', ‘bs mvg', ‘gt dwn'— the list is endless.

And if you are a parent who believe that your daughter who boards a bus will obviously reach her destination, message or no message, then you are an unconcerned and uncaring parent who does not deserve to inhabit this ‘well-connected' planet.

No wonder then, that we have companies announcing mega schemes like 10000 SMSes for only Rs. 200. Tap dancing with the fingers was never so cheap.

Have you ever considered how these manias are killing the basic human traits of listening, comprehending, understanding? Schools, these days, prefer communicating through the Internet to having the student listen to the teacher. It destroys the basic classroom ethic of being attentive to what the teacher says.

Have you thought about the countless manhours lost in these endeavours? Communication is important, propagators of this mania may say. To them, I ask, where does face-to-face communication figure in their scheme of things?

The mother and the daughter who exchange 20 SMSes in a day do not find 20 minutes to talk to each other face to face, though they live under the same roof. Spouses who stay apart are unable to understand what is going on in each other's mind. They feel that modern communication technologies have solved all their problems, forgetting that nothing can replace the comfort of expressing one's feelings face to face. We never bother to visit our relatives and friends, content as we are with chatting with them on the phone. Children abroad feel that their duty ends with chatting with their parents online daily.

Let us put an end to this mania. Methods of communication are meant to help us, not to make slaves of us. Human beings are the pride of god's creation, let us keep it so and not allow a machine to usurp our place!

It’s your servant, not master

Of late, I have been facing the problem of being interrupted almost incessantly by phone calls during my work and study or even leisure. On many occasions (becoming rather too frequent these days), I feel that my mind is losing ‘focus' and, as a result, I am unable to do quality work or give quality time to people who need it the most. This feeling nags me all the time and makes me feel guilty and frustrated.

In this hi-tech era, telephones (all types) have become almost a ‘necessary evil'. But I have learnt certain things over a period of time based on experience, both pleasant and unpleasant. I would like to advocate a strategy which I may call ‘phone management' and this is quite different from what we normally mean by the same term. While phone management is generally believed to be concerned with the technical aspects of using the device more efficiently and to its full potential, I am referring to how we use the phone, particularly how we handle calls, alerts and text messages. After all, when we have so much of hype about ‘management' with so many variations of the concept such as time management, tourism management, stress management and anger management, I think, we can justify the idea of phone management. I pity my friends who struggle with two or three cellphones or a phone with a dual SIM system. It is annoying to see people taking calls during meetings and even when they are addressing a gathering which I consider a lack of etiquette and disrespect to others.

Absolute control

While there is no doubt about the wide range of benefits from the telephone, one needs to have absolute control over it and see that it does not come in the way of work, study or even leisure. You feel rather irritated at times when the phone is gaining control over your life and work. There is no doubt that when you try to control the phone, people may not like it and some may even get annoyed (especially bosses). When I see someone using a phone while driving, I shudder to think of the consequences. Talking and driving are mutually exclusive because focussing on both the conversation and the road uses the same part of the brain. As a result, people generally become more concerned with their conversations and do not concentrate on their immediate surroundings.

A 2006 study published in the Human Factors journal showed that drivers talking on cellphones were more involved in rear-end collisions. While talking, people must withdraw their attention from the road in order to formulate responses. But as the brain cannot focus on two sources of input at one time, driving and listening or talking, constantly changing the input provided by cellphones distracts the brain and increases the likelihood of accidents.

I think we should manage our phones more effectively by switching them off while driving or involved in risky operations. Recently, I saw a video of a man triggering a major fire in a gas station and getting burnt alive just because he tried to use the mobile phone's display as a source of light while he was working atop an oil tanker. I am also of the strong opinion that people should switch off the phone or put in silent mode while at work or during meetings in order to avoid distractions and to show respect to others. We need to create awareness of this kind of ‘phone management' first among schoolchildren and youth attending colleges and universities. We also need to sensitise the public at large to the use, abuse or misuse of phone, besides learning etiquette.