A Day Without Handphone

A handphone is just an accessory that gives us additional convenience in our everyday life. Before handphones crawled into our lives, we live just as we were. So I say, handphones are just “wants”, not “needs”.

It took me just one day to realise that I was so wrong.

Last Sunday, after I left the house for work and was about to enter the train station, I thought of sending a message via the handphone. I fumbled frantically in my bag for the familiar rectangular shape. It was not there!

Then it dawned on me. I had left the handphone on my table for recharging.

“Argh! Should I walk back home to take it? But I might be late for work. Forget it. Surely I can survive a day without a handphone!”

And so, that started my adventure for the day.

When I got to my workplace, I had to find out the contacts of A urgently through my friend B.

But B’s number is stored in my handphone. I have not cultivated the good habit of writing down phone numbers in traditional phone books. I am just too used to keying new numbers straight into the handphone.

(It seems like the last experiences of losing my phone, the first time being stolen and the second time dropping it in a lecture theatre, and the aftermath of having to collect phone numbers from everyone I know, have not made me learn my lesson well.)

When I finally found out B’s number, B did not answer my call! I had to drop her a message. But, without my handphone, how am I going to do that?

It took me almost the whole morning to make calls from the unsurprisingly few phone numbers I can recall off-hand, and finally I contacted A.

Whew!

The rest of the day was dramatically like the morning and I was constantly on tenter hooks. I was almost sent out alone to a rather rural place for an assignment. Without a handphone, how am I going to connect with the rest of the world? Either to contact someone, call a cab or to ask for help?

I felt really handicapped without my handphone. This came pretty much as a shock.

I am one who uses the phone strictly just for phone calls and messaging. I hardly use the phone to play games, take pictures or listen to the radio. My requirements are so basic. But, as I have realized, the basic requirements are what makes the handphone indispensable. I have gotten so used to having a phone that I only realized its importance when it is not around.

I think modern society has progressed to a stage of no return. In the past, we did not have to rely on modern gadgets. But at present, we can no longer say that, if we could do that in the past, we could do it today too. Simply because, we cannot do it anymore.

Whether we like it or not, we have become slaves to our handphones.

*Beep Beep*

Sorry folks, I need to excuse myself for the moment because my master is calling me, and yes, I will remember to bring her out every time I go out in future.