The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mohammad Shahidul Islam

It was a dazzling dramatic escapade. Wrapped up in an overwhelming craze, the audience had been playing host to Hollywood. While they pray, in extreme anxiety, for the fighting leader and his appealing wife Elsa to escape into the New World, time was too long. Oh! My Good God!! Fortunately, you hadn't sanctified these naive creatures with mobile phone decades ago. And, Casablanca, set in World War 11, memorable for its lines of dialogue and a thriller full of romance and adventure, was salted away.

However, these memorable lines we yearn for are incessantly jammed these days by some notorious cast playing the tragicomedy, "Return of the mobile fool," in the audience. Though tuned into mellifluous melodies on top of the charts, mobile music has been increasingly becoming a nuisance to the public. Now, it's only in the theatre, library and public transport.

But tomorrow, someone may excuse the supreme power of every religion for a while to answer somebody more important. Such uncalled for crude invasions are a routine these days.

By nature, man is a technologist. A piece of stone would have been one of the earliest technologies and the knife might have been the killer application. Likewise, for communication a technology, mobile is at its cruelest as a killer.

With over two billion users the world over, it easily overtook fixed-lines years before. Now, all and sundry virtually dreams of communication on the move.

Without doubt, mobile technology is surprisingly useful. Little by little, and in stages, we are reinventing our lives around it. The call just after the bomb blast, text memo after a safe journey or information of delays may seem priceless. And, the nanny's ring cut over the mobile sounds much liberating for some parents waiting to contact the three-wheeler's handset to set off for work.

However, as everybody agrees, there's a problem area. Thus, 'The best line in the movie is interrupted by a crass ring tone" leaves another memorable line sparking off one more scintillating conversation.

Interestingly, some citizens are habitually vociferous of their boxers, bloodhounds and bulldogs. Moreover, even if we yearn for, hugging in public is a difficult desire even now.

Yet, armed with the latest mobile technologies, some wayward outshine with no trouble using their own killer applications to continue with boasting and hugging with more ease and room.

Its seamless communication perfectly tailored not only for the cautious, but also for the curious. Alas! It's the owner's freedom to hug or swallow his mobile, even if his expressions and body language may be a concern.

This suggests that there's a work to do in educating users on how to adopt it. In effect, making things more complicated, present day mobile is fast becoming a fashion item. When you wish to own a handset, you get obsessed with names of network operators, brands and so on. You are interested in pomp and style, not communication. We are very poor in realising its worth in adopting.

Stanley Beck, the author of Simplicity of Science remarks, "Glossy tables, gleaming windows, increasing piles of books or the sexiest secretary is not science. Science is observation and experimentation".

Likewise, as users of technology, we should not get ourselves blind with these breakthrough technologies. We should expect more to come, and be sensible in using existing technologies.

Network operators and handset makers should pay more attention in explaining what it does in a manner more constructive. Mobile technology is not a product, but a service. You shouldn't advertise mobile technology in a way you advertise food items. Street sellers, three-wheeler drivers and carpenters should also be convinced why it is useful.

These handsets are much simpler machines, with much lower support costs. It's a commonplace to see them sending and receiving email on the move as they do at the office. It makes them more responsive as they are always available. They reply messages at any time, and are more productive.

And, the technology pays for itself as it saves hours during a day. But, for all intents and purposes, we should realize the boundaries of our own worlds. Beyond our boundaries, there are others who wish peace.

Except for a few, there's a mobile generation of youth so fond of the new social networks they are forming. Some makes the best use of their travelling time and in between events no matter what business they are in.

For a geek, it may be his pocket computer. And, for the entrepreneur, it may be the indispensable communication tool. But for the public, it's kind of a consumer electronic product with a built-in camera, alarm clock, calendar, games console, radio, games console and torch. Is it a product? This is the place where we have got everything wrong.

Simply, a handset is a tangible product. But mobile technology is a service. A service entails a set of complex rules of social etiquette and personal conduct.

That's where etiquette should dictate. Magnetic waves carrying communications trespass our own air home gardens. And, we have the right to say stop when the need arises.

Consequently, it's clear that mobiles have made life easier at both high and low ends of the skills spectrum. My elder brother has said me that he routinely overhears their CEO asking his secretary to contact office peons over their mobiles. Once he offered my brother an official mobile, but he preferred his privacy and declined. Being always available is a cruse at times," responded the gentleman.

"Economics is not only the study of wealth, but, in a broader sense, it's a study of man," pondered Alfred Marshal, an eminent economist. Certainly, the generation is enormously richer than the previous.

But mere rise in living standards is not everything. It's nice to pay attention to cellular etiquette while testing your new ring tone.