Connected at l(e)ast

Wireless communication and the internet - how it has changed the way I live, work and play - and sometimes wished it didn’t.

When convenience becomes complacent
Just a couple of months ago, the internet connection in my flat was shut off. For four weeks I have lost one of my basic needs. Cliché as it sounds, my life depended on it. The internet is like God-sent (especially in Oslo when I didn’t have a TV in my flat). Everyday I depended on the blink on my modem to do the most basic things that I could have done without the internet in the past. During those (painful) four weeks, I wasn’t able to read news online, pay my bills online, check out my friends’ blogs, Facebook nor talk to my friends and family on MSN and Skype.

To some extent I have taken the convenience of having the internet for granted. I don’t have to run out in the rain to buy the day’s newspaper. I don’t have to queue in long lines just to pay my bills. I don’t have to worry about buying stamps and running out of ink while writting a letter home. It doesn’t matter who is on the other end of the telephone line of the customer service as long as he/she can answer my questions.

And when all this convenience is taken away from me for just a little while, I whine because I have been complacent.

Loosing the touch
Each time I use the webcam or my mobilephone to talk with friends and family back home, I am impressed all over again with the possibilities of interacting real-time while being in different timezones, latitues and longitudes. But with wireless communication and internet ruling the way we interact today, I feel that the society around me is slowly loosing the “physical” touch. By this, not only am I referring to the need to interact with someone in presence, but also physical gestures like snail mails.

I have had my fair share of frustrations while trying to get my message straight across in e-mails and phonecalls. Somehow I feel that the conversation would have taken less time and be more efficient if I had met the banker in person to explain my dilemma. I didn’t have to wait days for an e-mail reply, or be mis-understood on the mobilephone.

Last week I received a postcard from New York with some words of inspiration on it. Just yesterday, I received a small letter from a dear friend in Malaysia. Inside was a small note, no longer than 5 lines. And a handmade bookmark. Which arrived just on time as I just borrowed a book on the same day. Both the postcard and the letter didn’t say much, but the fact that they both had a personal touch - handwritting, stamps and its journey miles across continents made me realise that the virtual world can never take the place of physical gestures like these. Of course you will then tell me that I can print that touching e-mail that my Dad wrote me, and that it’s the thought that counts. But where is the personal touch in that then? As humans, we essentially need some form of physical existence to feel - a handshake, a hug, a smile, eye contact. So, can the virtual world replace this? And what if it does - will it make us less expressive, less human?

Work from anywhere, at anytime!
I have met some people who find that working from home is an “in-thing” - they are proud that they have successfully adopted mobility and flexibility. But how do we draw the line between “work from home” and “bring work home”? What does it mean when you tell your children that you are taking them on a hiking trip while you are busy trying to reply to your business e-mails from your summer cottage up in that remote little hill?

Etiquettes - where have all the manners gone?
Not too long ago, wireless technology has nothing to do with my table manners. Back in the old days (which I hope is not too long ago) when I sit down for dinner with my friends and family, we would talk about everything under the sun (typically with mouths half full and plenty of laughter). But today, in between our tuna salad or nasi lemak, each one of us take turns to excuse ourselves from the table to answer “important” calls on our Nokia N95 or SonyEricsson K850i. Conversations at table are left hanging mid-way while a new one starts on the mobilephone. How many of you have felt ignored when your speaking partner politely excuses him/herself to answer a call and later after he/she hangs up, realise that the “table conversation” (which means a lot to you) suddenly doesn’t sound so exciting anymore?

And there are those smartly dressed folks who conveniently ignore the “Strictly no mobile phones” signs in public places like schools and hospitals. It’s not that I’m eavesdropping, it’s just she seems to be telling him on her mobilephone (loud enough so that all the other strangers on the queit subway-train can hear too) that there is a big sale in Zara and that she will have to cancel that doctor’s appointment. Or that he will be late for the meeting because he overslept and missed the first flight in the morning. I know some teachers who complain about how parents talk shamelessly away on their mobilephones in schools during PTA sessions. So then I ask, has mobile communication taught us anything about wireless manners?

In a common fashion I believe that wireless communication and internet has changed the way society live and thrive. But it is also this change that in return affects the development of these technology, so it becomes a cycle. What’s left then is the race to the finishing line: Are we connected at least? Or connected at last?