Thursday, September 27, 2012

Checking-Phone Disorder and the Isolation

In Singapore, many people refer to their smartphone when they have nothing to do, bored, in an awkward moment, and so on. Yes, even just checking the phone: unlock, look at home screen, nothing new, lock. I am sure many do not check their kids that way: I am not doing anything, is my kid okay, he is good, check again later. I can't say I am not one of them, especially that I don't have a watch, I keep referring to my phone to know the time. I also refer to my phone 'in case' I miss a notification. Which, yeah, even when I am with my peers, I refer to my phone too often. In case nothing new, I open Twitter. What the hell. I am trying to stop now, but it is hard.

Why is it the trend going this way, at least in Singapore? Well, I don't want to get sued, but I am pretty sure the trend started since iPhone. What did iPhone changes? Not only the new app list, the App Store, the simplicity, blah blah blah. Before iPhone, the smartphone world was dominated by Symbian. So let's check what has changed since then. Firstly, no more file sharing (meh). Yes. Last time I interacted with my friends on their phone. "Wow, new photos of BoA. Send it to me!!! My bluetooth is on!!! Before class starts, quickly!!". Have you ever done that with iPhone? No... iPhone uses data plan. No need for such stone age shit like bluetooth. Just search on Safari, because you ain't got any file sharing system.

Yeah, damn right. Look from the Internet by yourself. Last time I remembered playing games together (Explode Arena, anyone?) on the phones. Yes, we had troubles connecting, especially the lag on the latter part of the games. But isn't that part of the fun? Now, you play through High Score Board. Even when you are next to each other. Some games do encourage interaction in multiplayer, like Fruit Ninja, Gravity Guy, Blokus, and so on. But what about the others, like Tiny Tower, Monster Life, and so on?

Fine, let us be back to the present when things are changing. We have rising popularity on NFC adoption to share files physically instead of just-Google-it-and-you-will-find-it (well, mostly the sharing by NFC is boasted by Samsung Galaxy S III ads). But yeah, at least there are supporters of NFC around now, with Nokia and HTC joining the ranks. Apple? Well, they still want the Internet way and cloud way, so yeah, no need for the least of physical interaction like NFC.

Some of you may disagree that what I write is not true for all. Well, I am a geek, so I keep going back to technology even when I at the same time interact with others face-to-face. It is now no longer a separate entity from you. What I am talking here is that the current wave of technology attached to us isolate us from each other, unlike before when even to connect through technology, we need the actual interaction.

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