The unsubtle art of dealing with technology

I am a dying breed. Maybe.

I was one of the last of my friends (make that my generation) to obtain a smartphone.

Until the very last moment, I tried to hold on to my "bahthi” phone - those teeny-tiny mobile phones which can fit the palm of our hands and has a “bahthi”, the Maldivian native language Dhivehi term for “flashlight” as it contains one. That was until I was forced to get a smartphone because everyone else had switched to it and was using social media through internet to share so many aspects of lives concerning the maintenance of relationships with family, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues.

One of the last words before I switched off my bahthi phone for forever, I still remember, is a Maldivian friend telling me that "a smartphone is very important in these times because it is not enough to just make calls, and send SMS and MMS".

It dawned on me then that he spoke the truth and I realized that my stubborn holding on to a bahthi phone must have caused a lot of inconvenience to people who had wanted to expand my relationship with them through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Although I personally prefer visiting relatives in person and looking at their photographs from traditional hard cover albums, they had conveniently opted to upload their photos and videos onto social media. So I inevitably became the odd one out.

But recently, I came to know that I am not the only one to feel, for inexplicable reasons, intimidated and threatened by technology, but that there are also others who still use their smartphones only to conduct calls and send text messages. Like me, they are afraid of "damaging" or rendering a feature or app functionless by playing around and inadvertently messing with the phone's "settings".

One of my Maldivian friends says that whether I "destroy" my devices (like my smartphone, laptop computer, etc.) or not, I have to take the risk of playing around with them in order to learn how they function. At least the learning part's sense I can understand, but my problem is, I have already become a dinosaur that deserves extinction as I have not bothered to personally update myself in learning new things such as the terminology of specialist fields such as technology, medicine, or even the culinary arts. (Hence, don't expect me to start blogging about food any sooner).

If I had familiarized myself with technology to a reasonable extent, such as doing a short term online course, or simply following instructional videos on YouTube, I would not have got so lost in the world of technology, such as cyberspace, although it would not necessarily have meant giving up my journalism career in favor of an alternate livelihood such as coding. Been able to follow simple instructions in English language, I could have solved on my own problems that I faced in doing stuff such as installing apps, and thereby lead me to appreciate technology at the same time. But because I have failed in “updating” myself in this regard, I am my own scapegoat wherever my technical failings are concerned; now I find myself dependent on obtaining the help of people knowledgeable in technology when downloading or installing or solving problems related to software and apps.

As things stand now, if I had bothered to familiarize myself with technology, I could have avoided many situations which pose technological dilemmas because of my ignorance. There is still time for me to upgrade my technology knowledge but do I have the will to go through an online course or learn from YouTube videos? This is still possible because I can still set aside time to learn about technology. 

Currently, because I am been too lazy and careless in not learning, my worst fears sometimes do come true. For instance, one of the most recent troubles I faced was been unable to login and register for a "goathi", a land plot when the government opened the opportunity for Male' residents to apply for "free" land for housing settlement. Although I thank Allah that I wouldn't be rendered homeless because He has blessed my family with land, I felt sorrow for my compatriots who might not have been able to register for land just because of a technical glitch.

And the other recent incident which confirmed my worst fears was when I could not install the Instagram app due to - you guessed right - another error message which I could have solved by myself if I had familiarized myself with technology rather than depending on the assistance of  "nerds": I am not using words like "geeks" to speak lowly of these tech wizards who are actually now our saviours in this age of technology; in fact, I am of the strong opinion that the Maldivian government should indeed recognise and award tech savvy people like them.

Do I look at all technology with "suspicious eyes", as one of my Maldivian friends said? Yes, I do. Until I stop feeling that my devices are not "haunted" with "ghosts" inside of them, or let's call them "algorithms" or "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) gadgetry which "knows" the right times to install updates so that my devices can keep on functioning properly. Yet the unnerving thing could be when one day I wake up and find my device useless while the next day I may wake up and find it functioning properly again due to the successful installation of the updates - without my knowledge.

Maybe I am watching too many scary movies and I don't mean the traditional horror films like “A Quiet Place”; what I am actually frightened about is not only whether robots one day can "dream" but also rule and exploit human lives in the manner demonstrated in the "Matrix" and "Terminator" films.

While tech billionaires exploit so much profit from social media amidst the presence of celebrities on those platforms, it’s also great that the tech billionaires are exploring more avenues for technical wizardry but should there be a limit at which we should stop in order to prevent humanity from losing our humanity?