Technology, pro or con?

This is a topic that has been debated endlessly over the years, I’m sure. You’ve got people on one side, arguing that advancements in online banking, for example, means that you don’t have to go to the bank and face the long queues. On the other hand, others say you eventually start to lose human contact.

Me? I’ve usually been on the side that provides me with the most benefit. Sure, you lose out on speaking to an actual human being, but so what? In my first semester in Monash University, we had to register for our tutorials by going from room to room, queuing up and selecting the times that you want. Sure, you might get to the first room early, but by the time you’re done registering for your first class, everyone else has probably already selected all the times that you want for your subsequent classes. How did we get around that? We got all our friends to line up in each queue, and we ran from room to room as they got to the front of the queue. We got lots of dirty looks, but ended up getting all the classes we wanted. The next semester, when they switched to booking tutorials online instead, I was so thankful!

Lately, however, I’ve noticed that there may have been some adverse effects of technology. That device that most of us carry around most of the day called a mobile phone? As we send SMSes out, trying to get the message to fit within the confines of x number of characters, or to get the messages out ASAP, we’ve been shortening words until it becomes a second habit to most of us. That would be fine as long as it’s confined to SMSes, but is it? Lately, whilst browsing through a predominantly Malay-speaking forum, I happened across a few phrases, which to me, didn’t make much sense at all!

Example : sy xth apa y ptt sy wat bl sy rndu sgt kat dia…

I had to turn to a friend of mine, who is a lecturer in UITM, to ask her what on earth that meant. After explaining it to me, I expressed my amazement that she even knew what that phrase meant. She said that she sees it all the time in the essays that the students nowadays write for her classes (OK, perhaps not that phrase exactly, but similar).

My conclusion? I’m all for technology, but don’t let it rule your life! Let me ask you, if you had a power outage during the day, would you be bored out of your mind without all the modern conveniences we have nowadays? Or would you be able to entertain yourself adequately?